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THOMAS JEFFERSON 



BY 



JOHN T: MORSE, JR. 




BOSTON AND NEW YORK 

HOUGHTON MIFFLIN COMPANY 

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COPYRIGHT, 1883 AND I9II, BY JOHN T. MORSE, JS. 

COPYRIGHT, 1898, BY JOHN T. MORSE, JR. AND 

HOUGHTON, MIFFLIN * CO. 

iU.L RIGHTS RESERVED 









CAMBRIDGE . MASSACHUSETTS 
PKINTBD IN THE U.S.A 



CONTENTS 

CRAP. Mca 

I. Youth 1 

n. In the Hottse of Bubgesses ... 15 

III. In Congress 23 

IV. Again in the House of Burgesses . . 36 
V. Governor of Virginia 51 

VI. In Congress Again 64 

Vn. Minister to France 70 

Vlll. Secretary of State. — Domestic Affairs . 87 

IX. Secretary of State. — Growth of Dissensions 100 

X. Secretary of State. — Foreign Affairs . 130 

XI. In Retreat 148 

XII. Vice-President 154 

Xni. President : First Term. — Offices. — Callen- 

DER 186 

XrV. President: First Term. — Louisiana . . 205 
XV. President: First Term. — Impeachments. — 

Reelection 230 

XVI. President: Second Term. — Randolph's De- 
fection. — Burr's Treason . . . 242 
XVn. President: Second Term. — Embargo . . 255 
XVin. At Monticello: Political Opinions . . 286 
XIX. At Monticello : Personal Matters. — Death 295 
Index , . . r 309 



THOMAS JEFFEESON 



CHAPTER I 

YOUTH 

Little more than a century ago a civilized na- 
tion without an aristocracy was a pitiful spectacle 
scarcely to be witnessed in the world. The Amer- 
ican colonists, having brought no dukes and barons 
with them to the rugged wilderness, fell in some 
sort under a moral compulsion to set up an imita- 
tion of the genuine creatures, and, as their best 
makeshift in the emergency, they ennobled in a 
kind of local fashion the richer Virginian planters. 
These gentlemen were not without many qualifica* 
tions for playing the agreeable part assigned to 
them ; they gambled recklessly over cards and at 
the horse-racings and cock-fightings which formed 
their chief pleasures ; they caroused to excess at 
taverns and at each other's houses ; they were very 
extravagant, very lazy, very arrogant, and fully 
persuaded of their superiority over their fellows, 
whom they felt it their duty and their privilege to 
direct and govern ; they had large landed estates, 



2 THOMAS JEFFERSON 

and preserved the custom of entailing them in 
favor of eldest sons ; they were great genealogists, 
and steeped in family pride ; they occupied houses 
which were very capacious and noted for unlimited 
hospitality, but which were also ill-kept and bar- 
ren ; they were fond of field-sports and were ad- 
mirable horsemen ; they respected the code of 
honor, and quarreled and let blood as gentlemen 
should ; they were generous, courageous, and high- 
spirited ; a few of them were liberally educated 
and well-read. We all know that when the days 
of trial came, the best of them were little inferior 
to the best men whose names are to be found in 
the history of any people in the world ; ^ though 
when one studies the antecedents and social sur- 
roundings whence these noble figures emerged, it 
geems as if for once men had gathered grapes from 
thorns and figs from thistles. 

Rather upon the outskirts than actually within 
the sacred limits of this charmed circle, Thomas 
Jefferson was born on April 13, 1743. The first 
American Jefferson was dimly supposed to have 
immigrated from Snowdon, in Wales; such at 
least was the family " tradition ; " while the only 
thing certainly to be predicated concerning him is 
that he was one of the earliest settlers, having ar- 
rived in Virginia before the Mayflower had brought 

^ It should be remembered that by good rights neither Waah' 
ington, Jefferson, nor even Madison, before they became distin- 
guished, ^vould have been entitled to take rank in the exclusive 
coterie of the best Virginian families- 



YOUTH 3 

the first cargo of Puritans to the New England 
coast. Peter Jefferson, the father of Thomas, gave 
the family its first impetus on the road towards 
worldly success. He was a man of superb phy- 
sique, and of correspondingly vigorous intellect 
and enterprising temper. In early life he became 
very intimate with William Randolph of Tucka- 
hoe ; he " patented " in the wilderness a thousand 
acres of land adjoining the larger estate of Ran- 
dolph, bought from his friend four hundred acres 
more, paying therefor the liberal price of " Henry 
Weatherbourne's biggest bowl of arrack punch," 
as is jovially nominated in the deed ; and further 
cemented the alliance by marrying William's cousin, 
Jane Randolph, in 1738. The distinction which 
this infusion of patrician blood brought to the com- 
moner Jeffersonian stream was afterwards slight- 
ingly referred to by Thomas Jefferson, who said, 
with a characteristic democratic sneer, that his 
mother's family traced " their pedigree far back 
in England and Scotland, to which let every one 
ascribe the faith and merit he chooses." 

Peter Jefferson's plantation, or more properly 
his farm, for it seems to have been largely devoted 
to the culture of wheat, lay on the Rivanna near 
its junction with the James, including a large ex- 
tent of plain and some of the lower shoulders or 
spurs of the mountains known as the Southwest 
Range. He named it Shadwell, after the parish 
in London where his wife had been born ; among 
its hills was that of Monticello, upon which in after 



4 THOMAS JEFFERSON 

years Thomas Jefferson built his house. Peter was 
colonel of his county, and a member of the House 
©f Burgesses, apparently a man of rising note in 
the colony. But in August, 1757, in the fiftieth 
year of what seemed a singularly vigorous life, he 
suddenly died, leaving Thomas only fourteen years 
old, with the advantages, however, of a comforta- 
ble property and an excellent family connection on 
the mother's side, so that it would be his own fault 
if he should not prosper well in the world. 

Jefferson appears to have been sensibly brought 
up, getting as good an education as was possible in 
Virginia and paying also due regard to his physical 
training. He grew to be a slender and sinewy, 
or, as some preferred to say, a thin and raw-boned 
young man, six feet two and one half inches tall, 
with hair variously reported as red, reddish, and 
sandy, and with eyes mixed of gray and hazel. 
Certainly he was not handsome, and in order to 
establish his social attractiveness his friends fall 
back on " his countenance, so highly expressive of 
intelligence and benevolence," and upon his "fluent 
and sensible conversation " intermingled with a 
" vein of pleasantry." He is said to have improved 
in appearance as he grew older, and to have be- 
come " a very good-looking man in middle age, and 
quite a handsome old man." ^ He was athletic, 
fond of shooting, and a skillful and daring horse- 
man even for a Virginian. He early developed a 
strong taste for music, and fiddled assiduously for 
1 Tucker's Life of Jefferson, i. 29. 



YOUTH S 

many years. By his own desire he entered Wil- 
liam and Mary College in 1760, at the age of sev- 
enteen. He was now secure of every advantage 
possible for a young Virginian. The college was 
at Williamsburg, then the capital of the colony^ 
and his relationship with the Randolphs made him 
free of the best houses.^ A Scotch doctor, Wil- 
liam Small, was Professor of Mathematics and tem- 
porarily also of Philosophy. He appears to have 
had a happy gift of instruction, and to have fired 
the mind of his pupil with a great zeal for learn- 
ing, Jefferson afterward even said that the pre- 
sence of this gentleman at the University was 
"what probably fixed the destinies of my life." 

If we may take Jefferson's own word for it, he 
habitually studied, during his second collegiate 
year, fifteen hours a day, and for his only exercise 
ran, at twilight, a mile out of the city and back 
again. Long afterward, in 1808, he wrote to a 
grandson a sketch of this period of his life, com- 
posed in his moral and didactic vein ; in it he 
draws a beautiful picture of his own precocious 
and unnatural virtue, and is himself obliged to 
gaze in surprise upon one so young and yet so 
good amid crowding temptations. Without fully 

1 But one must not draw too glowing a picture of the advan- 
tage of living in Williamsburg, which in fact was a village con- 
taining about two hundred houses, " one thousand soula, whites 
and negroes," and " ten or twelve gentlemen's families coMStantly 
residing in it, besides merchants and ti-adesmen." Only during 
the winter session of the legislature it became "crowded with tb* 
gentry of the country." See Parton's hife of Jeffersotiy 20. 



8 THOMAS JEFFERSON 

sharing in this generous admiration, we must not 
doubt that he was sufficiently studious and sensi* 
ble, for he had a natural thirst for information, and 
he always afterward appeared a broadly educated 
man. His preference was for mathematics and 
natural philosophy, studies which he deemed " so 
peculiarly engaging and delightful as would induce 
every one to wish an acquaintance with them." 
He was fond also of classics, and indeed eschewed 
with positive distaste no branch of study save only 
ethics and metaphysics. At these he sneered, and 
actually once had the courage to say that it was 
*' lost time " to attend lectures on moral philoso- 
phy, since " he who made us would have been 
a pitiful bungler if he had made the rules of our 
moral conduct a matter of science." Certainly 
morals never became in his mind one of the exact 
sciences, and the heretical notion of his youth re- 
mained the conviction of his mature years. He 
appears to have read quite extensively, with sound 
selection and liberal taste, among the acknowledged 
classics in Greek, Latin, and English literature, 
and to some extent also in French and Italian. 
But novels he never fancied and rarely touched at 
any period of his life, though not by reason of a 
severe taste, since for a long while he was nothing 
less than infatuated with the bombast of Ossian. 

After graduation, Jefferson read law in the office 
of George Wythe, a gentleman whose genial social 
qualities and high professional attainments are at- 
tested by the friendly allusions of many eminent 



YOUTH t 

contemporaries.^ His zeal in labor still continued, 
and again the story is told that he habitually 
reached the measure of fifteen hours of study 
daily. When he was about twenty-one years old, 
Jefferson drew up a plan of study and reading for 
a young friend. Before eight o'clock in the morn- 
ing this poor fellow was to devote himself to " phy- 
sical studies ; " eight to twelve o'clock, law ; twelve 
to one, politics ; afternoon, history ; " dark to 
bedtime," literature, oratory, etc., etc. Yet there 
were cakes and ale in those days, young girls and 
dancing at the Raleigh tavern, cards and horses ; 
and the young Virginians had their full share of 
all these good things. Probably the fifteen hours 
stint, as a regular daily allowance, is fabulous. 
"With Professor Small and Mr. Wjrthe the young 
student formed a " partie carree " at the " pal- 
ace " of Francis Fauquier, then the gay, agreeable, 
accomplished, free-thinking, gambling governor of 
Virginia. The four habitually dined together in 
spite of the fifteen-hour rule, and it betokens no 
small degree of intellectual maturity on the part 
of Jefferson, that while a mere college lad, he was 
the selected companion of three such gentle- 
men. Fortunately his sound common sense pro- 
tected him from the dangerous elements in the 
association. 

A few letters written by Jefferson at this time 
to his friend John Page, a member of the well- 

1 John Marshall read law with him, and Henry Clay was hJSI 
private secretary. 



S THOMAS JEFFERSON 

known Virginian family of that name and himself 
afterward governor of Virginia, have been pre- 
served. Without showing much brilliancy, they 
abound in labored attempts at humor, and are 
thickly sown with fragments from the classics and 
simple bits of original Latinity. The chief bur- 
den of them all is the girls, whose faces, it is to 
be hoped, were prettier than their names, — Sukey 
Potter, Judy BurweU, and the like. One of them, 
" Belinda," as he called her, he treated in a rather 
peculiar way. He told her that he loved her, but 
did not desire at present to engage himself, since 
he wished to go to Europe for an indefinite period ; 
but he said that on his return, of course with un- 
changed affections, he would finally and openly 
commit himself. To this not very ardent propo- 
sition the lady naturally said No, and soon 
wedded another. The " laggard in love " wrote 
a despairing letter or two, which fail to bring 
tears to the reader's eyes ; remained in comforta- 
ble bachelorhood a few short years, and then gave 
his hand, and doubtless also in all warmth and 
sincerity his heart, to the young widow of Bathurst 
Skelton. His marriage took place January 1, 
1772. If the accounts of gallant chroniclers may 
be trusted, the bride had every qualification which 
can make woman attractive ; an exquisite feminine 
beauty, grace of manners, loveliness of disposition, 
rare cleverness, and many accomplishments. Fur- 
thermore, her father, John Wayles, a rich lawyer, 
considerately died about sixteen months after the 



YOUTH 9 

marriage, and so caused a handsome addition to 
Jefferson's property. 

Jefferson, however, had no need to marry for 
money. Though not very rich, he was well off 
and was rapidly multiplying his assets. At the 
time of his marriage he had increased his patri- 
mony so that 1900 acres had swelled by purchases 
to 5000 acres, and thirty slaves had increased to 
fifty-two. He was getting considerably upwards 
of $3000 a year from his profession,^ and $2000 
from his farm. This made a very good income in 
those days in Virginia. The evidence is abtmdant 
that he was thrifty, industrious, and successful. 
He seemed like one destined to accumulate wealth, 
but he never had a fair opportunity to show his 
capacity in this direction, since he maintained a 
resolve not to better his fortunes while in public 
life. 

His career at the bar began in 1767, when he 
was only twenty-four years old, and closed in 1774. 
If he had only been getting fairly into business 
when he left the profession, he would have had 
little right to complain. But apparently he had 
stepped at once into an excellent practice, and 
either the chief occupation of all Virginians was 
litigation, or else he must have enjoyed excep- 
tional good fortune. In the first year he had 
sixty-eight cases in the " general court," in the 
next year one hundred and fifteen, in the third 

^ During the seven years that he was in practice his fees a,yes< 
tiged $3000 per annum. 



10 THOMAS JEFFERSON 

year one hundred and ninety-eight. Of causes 
before inferior tribunals no record was kept. Yet 
Mr. Randall tells us that he was chiefly an " office- 
lawyer," for that a husky weakness of the voice 
prevented him from becoming very successful as 
an advocate. 
\j The farming, though it contributed the smaller 

fraction of his income, was the calling which 
throughout life he loved with an inborn fondness 
not to be quenched by all the cares and interests 
of a public career, and his notebooks attest the 
unresting interest which he brought to it in all 
times and places. A striking paper, unfortunately 
incomplete and undated, is published in the first 
volume of his works. " I sometimes ask myself,'* 
he writes, " whether my coimtry is the better for 
my having lived at aU. ... I have been the in- 
strument of doing the following things." Then 
are enumerated such matters as the disestablish- 
ment of the state church in Virginia, the putting 
an end to entails, the prohibition of the importa- 
tion of slaves, also the drafting of the Declaration 
of Independence, and in the same not very long 
list, cheek by jowl with these momentous achieve- 
ments, follows the importation of olive plants from 
Marseilles into South Carolina and Georgia, and 
of heavy upland rice from Africa into the same 
States, in the hope that it might supersede the cul- 
ture of the wet rice so pestilential in the summer. 
*' The greatest service," he comments, " which can 
be rendered to any country is, to add a useful 



TOUTH n 

plant to its culture, especially a bread grain ; next 
in value to bread is oil." At another time he 
wrote : " Those who labor in the earth are the 
chosen people of God, if ever he had a chosen peo- 
ple, whose breasts he has made his peculiar deposit 
for substantial and genuine virtue. , . . Corruption 
of morals in the mass of cultivators is a phenome- 
non of which no age or nation has furnished aa 
example. . . . Generally speaking, the proportion 
which the aggregate of the other classes of citizens 
bears in any state to that of the husbandmen is 
the proportion of its unsound to its healthy parts, 
and is a good enough barometer wheieby to mea- 
sure the degree of its corruption." From these 
premises he draws the conclusion that it is an 
error to attract artificers or mechanics from for- 
eign parts into this country. It will be better and 
more wholesome, he says, to leave them in their 
European workshops, and " carry provisions and 
materials to workmen there, than bring them to 
the provisions and materials, and with them their 
manners and principles." This would hardly pass 
nowadays for sound political economy ; but it is an 
excellent sample of the simple, impractical form 
into which Jefferson's reflections were apt to de- 
velop when the mood of dreamy virtue was upon 
him. During an inroad of yellow fever he found 
" consolation " in the reflection that Providence 
had so ordered things " that most evils are the 
means of producing some good. The yellow fever 
will discourage the growth of great cities in our 



S2 THOMAS JEFFERSON 

nation, and I view great cities as pestilential to 
the morals, the health, and the liberties of man." 
Nor did wider experience of the world cause him 
to change his views. In 1785 he wrote from 
Paris : " Cultivators of the earth are the most 
valuable citizens. They are the most vigorous, the 
most independent, the most virtuous ; and they are 
tied to their country and wedded to its liberty and 
interests by the most lasting bonds. ... I consider 
the class of artificers as the panders of vice, and 
the instruments by which the liberties of a country 
are generally overturned." " Were I to indulge 
in my own theory," he again says, " I should wish 
them (the States) to practice neither commerce 
nor navigation, but to stand with respect to Eu- 
rope precisely on the footing of China." 

For his own personal part, Jefferson was always 
an enthusiast in agriculture. He was never too 
busy to find time to note the dates of the planting 
and the ripening of his vegetables and fruits. He 
left behind him a table enumerating thirty-seven 
esculents, and showing the earliest date of the ap- 
pearance of each one of them in the Washington 
market in each of eight successive years. He had 
ever a quick observation and a keen intelligence 
ready for every fragment of new knowledge or hint 
of a useful invention in the way of field work. All 
through his busy official life, abroad and at home, 
he appears ceaselessly to have one eye on the soil 
and one ear open to its cultivators ; he is always 
eomparing varying methods and results, sending 



YOUTH 13 

new seeds hither and thither, making suggestions, 
trying experiments, till, in the presence of his en- 
terprise and activity, one begins to think that the 
stagnating character so commonly attributed to the 
Virginian planters must be fabulous. For, on the 
contrary, so far was his temperament removed from 
the conservatism of the Anglo-Saxon race, that 
often he seemed to take the fact that a thing had 
never been done as a sufficient reason for doing 
it. All his tendencies were utilitarian. Though 
strangely devoid of any appreciation of fiction in 
literature, yet he had a powerful imagination, 
which ranged wholly in the unromantic domain of 
the useful, and ran riot in schemes for conferring 
practical benefits on mankind. He betrayed the 
same traits in agriculture and in politics. In both 
he was often a dreamer, but his dreams concerned 
the daily affairs of his fellow men, and his life was 
devoted to reducing his idealities to realities. It 
was largely this sanguine taste for novelty, this 
dash of the imaginative element, flavoring all his 
projects and doctrines, which made them attractive 
to the multitude, who, finding present facts to be 
for the most part hard and uninviting, are ever 
prone to be pleased with propositions for variety. 

Only once, under the combined influences of 
Ossian, youth, and love, we find his fancy roving 
in a melodramatic direction. He turns then for a 
while from absorbing calculations of the amount of 
work which a man can do with a one-wheeled bar. 
row and the amount he can do with a two-wheeled 



14 THOMAS JEFFERSON 

barrow, the number and cost of the nails required 
for a certain length of paling, the amount of lime, 
or limestone, required for a perch of stone wall, and 
in place of these useful computations he lays plans 
for ornamental work. He will " choose out for a 
burying place some unfrequented vale in the park," 
wherein a bubbling brook alone shall break the 
stillness, while around shall be " ancient and ven- 
erable oaks " interspersed with " gloomy ever- 
greens." In the centre shall be a " small gothic 
temple of antique appearance." He will " appro- 
priate one half to the use of his family," the other, 
with an odd manifestation of Virginian hospitality, 
to the use of " strangers," servants, etc. There 
shall be " pedestals, with urns and proper inscrip- 
tions " and a " pyramid of the rough rockstone " 
over the " grave of a favorite and faithful servant." 
There will be, of course, a grotto, " spangled with 
translucent pebbles and beautiful shells," with an 
ever-trickling stream, a mossy couch, a figure of a 
sleeping nymph, and appropriate mottoes in Eng- 
lish and Latin. It is needless to say that these 
idle fancies seem never to have been seriously 
taken in hand. More important and engrossing 
work than the preparation of an enticing grave- 
yard was forthwith to claim Jefferson's attention. 



CHAPTER n 

IN THE HOUSE OF BURGESSES 

About the time when he entered college, Jeffep» 
8on made the acquaintance of Patrick Henry, then 
a rather unprosperous, hilarious, unknown young 
countryman, just admitted to the bar, though pro- 
foundly ignorant of law. An intimacy sprang up 
between them, and when Henry became a member 
of the House of Burgesses he often shared Jeffer- 
son's chambers at Williamsburg. From them he 
went, in May, 1765, to utter that ringing speech 
against taxation without representation which made 
him for a time foremost among Virginian patriots. 
In the doorway of the hall stood Jefferson, an en- 
tranced listener, thinking that Henry spoke " as 
Homer wrote." The magnetic influence of this 
brilliant friend would have transformed a more 
loyally disposed youth than Jefferson into an arrant 
rebel. But no influence was needed for this pur- 
pose ; Jefferson was by nature a bold and free 
thinker, wanting rather ballast than canvas. As 
he watched the course of public events in those 
years when the germs of the Revolution were swell- 
ing and quickening in the land, all his sympathies 
•ere warmly enlisted with the party of resistance. 



16 THOMAS JEFFERSON 

By the year 1768, when the advent of a new gov- 
ernor made necessary the election of a new House 
of Burgesses, he already craved the opportunity to 
take an active part in affairs, and at once offered 
himself as a candidate for Albemarle County. He 
kept open house, distributed limitless punch, stood 
by the polls, politely bowing to every voter who 
named him, all according to the Virginian fashion 
of the day,^ and had the good fortune, by these 
meritorious efforts, to win success. On May 11, 
1769, he took his seat. Lord Botetourt delivered 
his quasi-royal speech, and Jefferson drew the reso- 
lutions constituting the basis of the reply; but 
afterward, being deputed to draw the reply itself, 
he suffered the serious mortification of having his 
document rejected. On the third day the burgesses 
passed another batch of resolutions, so odiously like 
a Bill of Rights that the governor, much perturbed 
in his loyal mind, dissolved them at once. The 
next day they eked out this brief term of service 
by meeting in the " Apollo," or long room of the 
Raleigh tavern, where eighty-eight of them, of 
whom Jefferson was one, formed a non-importation 
league as against British merchandise. All the 
signers of this document were at once reelected 
by their constituents. 

In March, 1773, the burgesses again came to- 
gether in no good humor. The destruction of the 
Gaspee in Narragansett Bay had led to a draconio 
act of Parliament whereby any colonist, destroying 
^ See Parton's deacription, in hia Life of Jefferson, p. 88. 



IN THE HOUSE OF BURGESSES 17 

so much as "the button of a mariner's coat," might 
be carried to England for trial and punished with 
death. Upon the assembling of the burgesses, Jet 
f erson and some five or six others, " not thinking 
our old and leading members up to the point of 
forwardness and zeal which the times required," 
met privately in consultation. The offspring of 
their conference was a standing committee charged 
to correspond with like committees which the sister 
colonies were invited to appoint. An idle contro- 
versy has arisen as to whether Massachusetts or 
Virginia was first to devise this system of corre- 
spondence. Jefferson long afterward averred that 
Virginia was the earlier, and the evidence favors 
the substantial correctness of his statement; for, 
though Massachusetts had suggested the idea some 
two years before, she had not pushed it, and the 
suggestion, known to few, had been forgotten by 
all. It naturally resulted from this proceeding 
that the burgesses were at once dissolved by the 
Earl of Dunmore. But the committee met on the 
next day and issued their circular of invitation. 

A year later, in the spring of 1774, news of the 
Boston Port Bill came while the burgesses were 
in session. Again Jefferson and some half dozen 
more, feeling that " the lead in the House on these 
subjects [should] no longer be left with the old 
members," and agreeing that they "must boldly 
take an unequivocal stand in the line with Massa- 
chusetts," 1 met in secret to devise proper measures. 

^ The march of events, Jefferson afterward wrote, "favored 



18 THOMAS JEFFERSON 

They determined to appoint a day of fasting and 
prayer, and in the House they succeeded in carry- 
ing a resolution to that effect. Again the gov- 
ernor dissolved them ; again they went over to the 
" Apollo," and again passed there most disloyal 
resolutions. Among these was one requesting the 
Committee of Correspondence to consult the other 
colonies on the expediency of holding annually a 
general congress ; also another, for the meeting of 
representatives from the counties of Virginia in 
convention at Williamsburg on August 1. The 
freeholders of Albemarle elected Jefferson again a 
burgess, and also a deputy to this convention. 

Jefferson started to attend the meeting of the 
convention, but upon the road was taken so ill 
with a dysentery that he could not go on. He 
therefore forwarded a draft of instructions, such 
as he hoped to see given by that body to the dele- 
gates whom it was to send to the general con- 
gress of the colonies. One copy of this document 
was sent to Patrick Henry, who, however, " com- 

the bolder spirits of Henry, the Lees, Pages, Mason, etc., with 
whom I went at all points. Sensible, however, of the importance 
of unanimity among our constituents, although we often wished 
to have gone faster, we slackened our pace that our less ardent 
colleagues might keep up with us ; and they on their part, differ- 
ing nothing from us in principle, quickened their gait somewhat 
beyond that which their prudence might, of itself, have advised, 
and thus consolidated the phalanx which breasted the power of 
Britain. By this harmony of the bold with the cautious, we ad- 
vanced with our constituents, in undivided mass, and with fewer 
examples of separation than, perhaps, existed in any other part of 
the Union." 



IN THE HOUSE OF BURGESSES 19 

municated it to nobody ; " perhaps, says Jefferson, 
" because he disapproved the ground taken," per- 
haps " because he was too lazy to read it." An- 
other copy was sent with better fortune to Peyton 
Randolph, president of the convention. It was 
laid by him upon the table, was read by the mem- 
bers, and was so well liked that it was printed in 
pamphlet form under the title of " A Summary 
View of the Rights of British America ; " in this 
shape it was sent over to Great Britain, was there 
" taken up by the opposition, interpolated a little 
by Mr. Burke," and then extensively circulated, 
running " rapidly through several editions." 

Naturally that was the era of manifestoes in 
the colonies, and many pens were busy preparing 
documents, public and private, famous and neg- 
lected, but nearly all sound, spirited, generalizing, 
and declamatory. Jefferson's instructions did not 
wholly escape the prevalent faults, and had their 
share of rodomontade about the rights of freemen 
and the oppressions of monarchs. But these were 
slight blemishes in a paper singularly radical, au- 
dacious, and well argued. The migration of the 
" Saxon ancestors " of the present English people, 
he said, had been made " in like manner with that 
of the British immigrants to the American col- 
onies." 

" Nor was ever any claim of superiority or depend- 
ence asserted over [the English] by that Mother Coun- 
try from which they had migrated ; and were such a 
elaim made, it is believed his Majesty's subjects in 



20 THOMAS JEFFERSON 

Great Britain have too firm a feeling of the rights de» 
rived to them from their ancestors, to how down the 
sovereignty of their State before such visionary preten- 
dons. And it is thought that no circumstance has oc- 
ijurred to distinguish materially the British from the 
Saxon emigration. Amei-ica was conquered and her 
settlements made and firmly established at the expense 
of individuals, and not of the British public." 

This was laying the axe at the very root of the 
tree with tolerable force ; and more blows of the 
same sort followed. The connection undeniably 
existing between the colonies and the mother coun- 
try was reduced to a minimum by an ingenious 
explanation. The emigrants, Jefferson said, had 
" thought proper " to " continue their union with 
England " " by submitting themselves to the same 
sovereign," who was a " central link " or " media- 
tory power " between " the several parts of the em- 
pire," so that " the relation between Great Britain 
and these colonies was exactly the same as that of 
England and Scotland after the accession of James 
and until the union, and the same as her present 
relations with Hanover, having the same executive 
chief, but no other necessary connection." The 
corollary was " that the British Parliament has no 
right to exercise authority over us," and when it 
endeavored to do so " one free and independent 
legislature " took upon itself " to suspend the pow- 
ers of another, free and independent as itself." 

These were revolutionary words, and fell short 
by ever so little of that direct declaration of inde- 



IN THE HOUSE OF BURGESSES 21 

pendence which they anticipated by less than two 
years. They would have cost Jejfferson his head 
had it been less inconvenient to bring him to West- 
minster Hall, and even that inconvenience would 
probably have been overcome had forcible opposi- 
tion been a little longer deferred in the colonies. 
As it was, the pamphlet " procured him the honor 
of having his name inserted in a long list of pro- 
scriptions enrolled in a bill of attainder commenced 
in one of the houses of Parliament, but suppressed 
in embryo by the hasty step of events, which 
warned them to be a little cautious." 

One can hardly be surprised that this Jefferson- 
ian " leap was too long, as yet, for the mass of 
our citizens," and that " tamer sentiments were 
preferred " by the convention. Jefferson himself 
frankly admitted, many years afterward, that the 
preference was wise. But his colleagues so well 
liked a boldness somewhat in excess of their own, 
that six months later, in view of the chance of ^^>^ 
Peyton Randolph being called away from service 
in the Colonial Congress, they elected Jefferson as 
a deputy to fill the vacancy in case it should occur. 
Not many weeks later it did occur. But Jefferson 
was detained for a short time in order to draw the 
reply of the burgesses to the celebrated "concil- 
iatory proposition," or so-called " olive branch," 
of Lord North. Otherwise it was " feared that 
Mr. Nicholas, whose mind was not yet up to the 
mark of the times," would undertake it. On June 
10, 17T5, the burgesses accepted Jefferson's draft 



22 THOMAS JEFFERSON 

" with long and doubtful scruples from Nicholas 
and Mercer," only making some slight amendments 
which Jefferson described as " throwing a dash of 
cold water on it here and there, enfeebling it some- 
what." The day after its passage Jefferson set 
forth to take his seat in Congress, bearing with 
him the document, which had been anxiously ex- 
pected by that body as being the earliest reply 
from any colony to the ministerial proposition. Its 
closing paragraph referred the matter for ultimate 
action to the general congress. 



CHAPTER in 
m CONGRESS 

Jefferson arrived in Philadelphia on the tenth 
day of his journey, and on June 21 became one of 
that assembly concerning which Lord Chatham 
truly said that its members had never been ex- 
celled " in solidity of reasoning, force of sagacity, 
and wisdom of conclusion." Jefferson, at the age 
of thirty-two, was among the younger deputies ^ in 
a body which, by the aid of Dr. Franklin, aged 
seventy-one, and Edward Rutledge, aged twenty- 
six, represented all the adult generations of the 
country. He brought with him a considerable 
reputation as a ready and eloquent writer, and was 
justly expected, by his counsel, his pen, and his 
vote, to bring substantial reinforcement to the 
more advanced party. In debate, however, not 
much was to be anticipated from him, for he was 
never able to talk even moderately well in a delib- 
erative body. Not only was his poor voice an im- 
pediment, but he was a man who instinctively 
abhorred contest. Daringly as he wrote, yet he 

^ Not, as he himself mth wonted inaccuracy says, " the young- 
est man but one ; " for besides Edward Rutledge, bom in 1749^ 
there was also John Jay, bom in 1745. 



a THOMAS JEFFERSON 

shrank from that contention which pitted him face 
to face against another, though the only weapons 
were the " winged words " of parliamentary argu- 
mentation. Turmoil and confusion he detested ; 
amid wrangling and disputing he preferred to be 
silent; it was in conversation, in the committee- 
room, and preeminently when he had pen, ink, and 
paper before him, that he amply justified his pre- 
sence among the threescore chosen ones of the thir- 
teen colonies. In his appropriate department he 
quickly superseded Jay as document-writer to Con- 
gress. 

Yet his first endeavor did not point to this dis- 
tinction. When news of the fight at Bunker's 
Hill arrived in Philadelphia, Congress felt obliged 
to publish a manifesto setting before the world the 
justification of this now bloody rebellion. Jeffer- 
son, as a member of the committee, undertook to 
draw the paper ; but he made it much too vigor- 
ous for the conciliatory and anxious temper of 
Dickinson ; so that, partly out of regard for this 
courteous and popular gentleman, partly from a 
politic desire not to outstrip too far the slower 
ranks, Jefferson's sheets were submitted to Dick- 
inson himself for revision. Not content with mod- 
ification, that reluctant patriot prepared an entire 
substitute which was reported and accepted. But 
its closing four and one half clauses were borrowed 
from the draft of Jefferson, whose admirers think 
that these alone save the document from being 
altogether feeble and inadequate. Among them 



IN CONGRESS 25 

were the following significant words : " We mean 
not to dissolve that union which has so long and 
so happily subsisted between us, and which we sin- 
cerely wish to see restored. Necessity has not yet 
[note the pregnant word] driven us into that de- 
sperate measure." ^ 

A month afterward Jefferson had better luck 
with his composition. He was second on the com- 
mittee — of which the members were chosen by 
ballot and took rank according to the number of 
votes received by them respectively — deputed to 
draw the reply of Congress to Lord North's " con- 
ciliatory proposition." He based his paper on the 
reply already drawn by him for the Virginian bur- 
gesses, and was gratified by seeing it readily ac- 
cepted. A few days later Congress adjourned, and 
Jefferson resumed his seat and duties in the state 
convention, by which he was at once reelected to 
Congress, this time standing third on the list of 
delegates. 

Much time has been wasted in idle efforts to 
determine precisely when and by whom the idea 
of separation and consequent independence of the 

^ The anthorship of these closing paragraphs has heen denied 
to Jefferson and attributed to Dickinson. But the evidence 
would establish only a small measure of probability in favor of 
Dickinson, if it stood wholly uncontradicted ; and it utterly fails 
to meet and control Jefferson's direct assertion, made in his Auto- 
biography, p. 11, that these words were retained from his own 
draft. The anxiety to claim them for Dickinson shows the com- 
parative estimation in which they are held. See Magazine 9f 
Amer. Hist. viii. 514. 



26 THOMAS JEFFERSON 

provinces was first broached before the Colonial 
Congress. The inquiry is useless for many rea- 
sons, but conclusively so because all the evidence 
which the world is ever likely to see has been 
already adduced, and has not sufficed to remove 
the question out of the domain of discussion. The 
truth is that, while no intelligent man could help 
contemplating this probable conclusion, all depre- 
cated it, many with more of anxiety than resolu- 
tion, but not a few with a more daring spirit. In 
varying moods any person might have different 
feelings on different days. In his habitual frame 
of mind Jefferson thought separation to be daily 
approaching, and in the near presence of so mo- 
mentous an event he was so far grave and dubious 
as to express a strong disinclination for it, though 
avowedly preferring it with all its possible train of 
woes to a continuance of the present oppression. 
He was too thoughtful not to be a reluctant revolu- 
tionist, but for the same reason he was sure to be 
a determined one. His relative, John Randolph, 
attorney-general of the colony, was a loyalist, and 
in the summer of 1775 was about to remove to 
England. Jefferson wrote him a friendly, serious 
letter, suggesting some considerations which he 
hoped that Randolph might have opportunity to 
lay before the English government, advantageously 
for both parties. He deprecates the present " con- 
tention" and the "continuance of confusion," which 
for him constitute, " of all states hut one, the most 
horrid." He says that England 



IN CONGRESS 27 

" would be certainly unwise, by trying the event of 
another campaign, to risk our accepting a foreign aid, 
which perhaps may not be obtainable but on condition 
of everlasting avulsion from Great Britain. This would 
be thought a hard condition to those who still wish for 
a reunion with their parent country. I am sincerely 
one of those, and would rather be in dependence on 
Great Britain, properly limited, than on any other nation 
on earth, or than on no nation. But I am one of those, 
too, who, rather than submit to the rights of legislating 
for us assumed by the British Parliament, and which late 
experience has shown they wiU so cruelly exercise, would 
lend my hand to sink the whole island in the ocean." 

This was written August 25, 1775 ; three months 
later he wrote, with a perceptible increase of feel- 
ing:— 

" It is an immense misfortune to the whole empire to 
have a king of such a disposition at such a time. . . . 
In an earlier part of this contest our petitions told him 
that from our King there was but one appeal. The ad- 
monition was despised and that appeal forced on us. To 
undo his empire, he has but one truth more to learn, — 
that, after colonies have drawn the sword, there is but 
one step more they can take. That step is now pressed 
upon us by the measures adopted, as if they were afraid 
we would not take it. Believe me, dear sir, there is not 
in the British Empire a man who more cordially loves a 
union with Great Britain than I do. But by the God 
that made me, I will cease to exist before I yield to 
a connection on such terms as the British Parliament 
proposes ; and in this I think I speak the sentiments 
of America. We want neither inducement nor power to 



28 THOMAS JEFFERSON 

declare and assert a separation. It is will alone that is 
wanting, and that is growing apace under the fostering 
hand of our King. One bloody campaign will probably 
decide, evei-lastingly, our future course ; and I am sorry 
to find a bloody campaign is decided on." 

In the autumn of 1775 Jefferson was again at- 
tending CongTess in Philadelphia ; early in 1776 
he came home ; but on May 13, 1776, he was back 
in his seat as a delegate from the Colony, soon to 
be the State, of Virginia. Events, which ten years 
ago had begun a sort of glacial movement, slow 
and powerful, were now advancing fast. On this 
side of the Atlantic, Thomas Paine had sent " Com- 
mon Sense " abroad among the people, and had 
stirred them profoundly. Since the bloodshed at 
Lexington and Charlestown, Falmouth had been 
burned, Norfollc bombarded, and General Wash- 
ington, concluding triumphantly the leaguer around 
Boston, was as open and efficient an enemy of Eng- 
land as if he had been a Frenchman or a Spaniard. 

It was time to transmute him from a rebel into 
a foreigner. Nor had the members of Congress 
any chance of escaping the hangman's rope unless 
this alteration could be accomplished for all the 
colonists. For all prominent men, alike in mili- 
tary and in civil life, it was now independence or 
destruction. Virginia instructed her delegates to 
move that Congress should declare " the United 
Colonies free and independent States," and on 
June 7 Richard Henry Lee offered resolutions ac- 
cordingly. In debate upon these on June 8 and 



IN CONGRESS 29 

10, it appeared, says Jefferson, that certain of the 
colonies " were not yet matured for falling from 
the parent stem, but that they were fast advancing 
to that state." To give the laggards time to catch 
up with the vanguard, further discussion was post- 
poned until July 1. But to prevent loss of time, 
when debate should be resumed, Congress on June 
11 appointed a committee charged to prepare a 
Declaration of Independence, so that it might be 
ready at once when it should be wanted. The 
members, in the order of choice by ballot, were : 
Thomas Jefferson, John Adams, Benjamin Frank- 
lin, Roger Sherman, and Robert R. Livingston. 

For the last hundred years one of the first facts 
taught to any child of American birth is, that 
Jefferson wrote the Declaration of Independence. 
The original draft in his handwriting was afterward 
deposited in the State Department. It shows two 
or three trifling alterations, interlined in the hand- 
writings of Franklin and Adams. Otherwise it 
came before Congress precisely as Jefferson wrote 
it. Many years afterward John Adams gave an 
account of the way in which Jefferson came to be 
the composer of this momentous document, differ- 
ing slightly from the story told by Jefferson. But 
the variance is immaterial, hardly greater than any 
experienced lawyer would expect to find between 
the testimony of two honest witnesses to any trans- 
action, especially when given after the lapse of 
many years, and when one at least had no memo- 
randa for refreshing his memory. Jefferson's state 



30 THOMAS JEFFERSON 

ment seems the better entitled to credit, and what 
little corroboration is to be obtained for either nar- 
rator is wholly in his favor. He says simply that 
when the committee came together he was pressed 
by his colleagues unanimously to undertake the 
draft ; that he did so ; that, when he had prepared 
it, he submitted it to Dr. Franklin and Mr. Adams, 
separately, requesting their corrections, " which 
were two or three only and merely verbal," " inter- 
lined in their own handwritings ; " that the report 
in this shape was adopted by the committee, and 
a " fair copy," written out by Mr. Jefferson, was 
then laid before Congress. 

A somewhat more interesting discussion concerns 
the question, how Jefferson came to be named first 
on the committee, to the entire exclusion of Lee, to 
whom, as mover of the resolution, parliamentary 
etiquette would have assigned the chairmanship. 
Many explanations have been given, of which some 
at least appear the outgrowth of personal likings 
and dislikings. It is certain that Jefferson was 
not only preeminently fitted for the very difficult 
task of this peculiar composition, but also that he 
was a man without an enemy. His abstinence 
from any active share in debate had saved him 
from giving irritation ; and it is a truth not to be 
concealed, that there were cabals, bickerings, heart- 
burnings, perhaps actual enmities, among the mem- 
bers of that famous body, which, grandly as it 
looms up, and rightly too, in the mind's eye, was 
after all composed of jarring human ingredients. 



IN CONGRESS 31 

It was well believed that there was a faction op. 
posed to Washington, and it was generally sus- 
pected that irascible, vain, and jealous John Adams, 
then just rising from the ranks of the people, made 
in this matter common cause with the aristocratic 
Virginian Lees against their fellow countryman. 
Adams frankly says that he himself was very un- 
popular ; and therefore it did not help Lee to be 
his friend. Furthermore, the anti-Washingtonians 
were rather a clique or faction than a party, and 
were greatly outnumbered. Jay, too, had his little 
private pique against Lee. So it is likely enough 
that a timely illness of Lee's wife was a fortunate 
excuse for passing him by, and that partly by rea- 
son of admitted aptitude, partly because no risk 
could be run of any interference of personal feel- 
ings in so weighty a matter, Jefferson was placed 
first on the committee with the natural result of 
doing the bulk of its labor. 

On July 1, pursuant to assignment. Congress, 
in committee of the whole, resumed consideration 
of Mr. Lee's resolution, and carried it by the votes 
of nine colonies. South Carolina and Pennsylvania 
voted against it. The two delegates from Delaware 
were divided. Those from New York said that per- 
sonally they were in favor of it and believed their 
constituents to be so, but they were hampered by 
instructions drawn a twelvemonth since and strictly 
forbidding any action obstructive of reconciliation, 
which was then still desired. The committee re> 
ported, and then Edward Rutledge moved an ad* 



82 THOMAS JEFFERSON 

jjournment to the next day, when his colleagues, 
$hough disapproving the resolution, would prob- 
ably join in it for the sake of unanimity. This 
motion was carried, and on the day following the 
South Carolinians were found to be converted ; 
also a third member "had come post from the 
Delaware counties " and caused the vote of that 
colony to be given with the rest ; Pennsylvania 
changed her vote ; and a few days later the con- 
vention of New York approved the resolution, 
" thus supplying the void occasioned by the with- 
drawing of her delegates from the vote." 

On the same day, July 2, the House took up Mr. 
Jefferson's draft of the Declaration, and debated 
it during that and the following day and until a 
late hour on July 4. Many verbal changes were 
made, most of which were conducive to closer ac- 
curacy of statement, and were improvements. Two 
or three substantial amendments were made by the 
omission of passages ; notably there was stricken 
out a passage in which George III. was denounced 
for encouraging the slave trade. It was thought 
disingenuous to attack him for tolerating a traffic 
conducted by Northern shipowners and sustanied 
by Southern purchasers, though it was true that 
sundry attempts of the Southern colonies to check 
it by legislation had been brought to naught by the 
king's refusal or neglect to ratify the enactments. 
Congress also struck out the passage in which Jef- 
ferson declared that the hiring of foreign mercena- 
ries by the English must " bid us renounce forever 



IN CONGRESS 33 

these unfeeling brethren," and cause us to " en- 
deavor to forget our former love for them, and 
hold them as we hold the rest of mankind, enemies 
in war, in peace friends." It was thought better 
to say nothing which could be construed as an an- 
imadversion on the English people. No interpo- 
lation of any consequence was made. 

Jefferson had ample cause to congratulate him- 
self upon this event of the discussion. While it 
was in progress and his paper was undergoing 
sharp criticism during nearly three days, he felt 
far from cheerful. He himself spoke not a word 
in the debate, partly, perhaps, from a sense of in- 
capacity to hold his own in so strenuous a contest 
of tongues, but also deeming it a " duty to be . . , 
a passive auditor of the opinions of others, more 
impartial judges." Dr. Franklin sat by him, and, 
seeing him " writhing a little under the acrimoni- 
ous criticisms on some of its parts," told him, " by 
way of comfort," the since famous story of the 
sign of John Thompson, the hatter. The burden 
of argument, from which Jefferson wisely shrank, 
was gallantly borne by John Adams, whom Jeffer- 
son gratefully called " the colossus of that debate." 
Jefferson used afterward to take pleasure in tinge- 
ing the real solemnity of the occasion with a color- 
ing of the ludicrous. The debate, he said, seemed 
as though it might run on interminably, and prob- 
ably would have done so at a different season of 
the year. But the weather was oppressively warm 
and the room occupied by the deputies was hard 



84 THOMAS JEFFERSON 

by a stable, whence the hungry flies swarmed thick 
and fierce, alighting on the legs of the delegates' 
and biting hard through their thin silk stockings. 
Treason was preferable to discomfort, and the 
members voted for the Declaration and hastened 
to the table to sign it and escape from the horse- 
fly. John Hancock, making his great familiar 
signature, jestingly said that John Bull could read 
that without spectacles ; then, becoming more seri- 
ous, began to impress on his comrades the neces- 
sity of their " all hanging together in this matter." 
" Yes, indeed," interrupted Franklin, " we must 
all hang together, or assuredly we shall all hang 
separately." " When it comes to the hanging," 
said Harrison, the "luxurious heavy gentleman" 
from Virginia, to the little meagre Gerry of Mas- 
sachusetts, " I shall have the advantage of you ; it 
will be all over with me, long before you have done 
kicking in the air." Amid such trifling, concealing 
grave thoughts, Jefferson saw his momentous docu- 
ment signed at the close of that summer afternoon ; 
he had acted as undertaker for the royal colonies 
and as midwife for the United States of America. 

It is a work of supererogation to criticise a 
paper with which seventy millions of people are 
to-day as familiar as with the Lord's Prayer. The 
faults which it has are chiefly of style and are due 
to the spirit of those times, a spirit bold, energetic, 
sensible, independent, in action the very best, but 
in talk and writing much too tolerant of broad and 
high-sounding generalization. John Adams and 



IN CONGRESS 35 

Pickering long afterward, when they had come 
to hate Jefferson as a sort of political arch-fiend, 
blamed it for lack of originality. Every idea in 
it, they said, had become " hackneyed " and was 
to be found in half a dozen earlier expressions of 
public opinion. The assertion was equally true, 
absurd, and malicious. No intelligent man could 
suppose that the Americans had been concerned in 
a rebellious discussion for years, and engaged in 
actual war for months, without having fully com- 
prehended the principles, the causes, and the justi- 
fication on which their conduct was based. It was 
preposterous to demand new discoveries in these 
particulars. Had such been possible, they would 
have been undesirable ; it would have been extreme 
folly for Jefferson to open new and unsettling dis- 
cussions at this late date. Of this charge against 
his production Jefferson said, with perfect wisdom 
and fairness, " I did not consider it as any part of 
my charge to invent new ideas altogether and to 
offer no sentiment which had ever been expressed 
before." 

The statement that all men are created " equal " 
has been declared liable to misconstruction ; but 
no intelligent man has ever misconstrued it, unless 
intentionally. So the criticism may be disregarded 
as trivial. Professor Tucker justly remarks of the 
whole paper that it is " consecrated in the affec« 
tions of Americans, and praise may seem as supep 
fluous as censure would be unavailing." 



CHAPTER rV 

AGAIN IN THE HOUSE OF BURGESSES 

Jefferson was reelected to Congress on June 
20, 1776, but declined to serve. At the time he 
assigned as his reason "the situation of his do- 
mestic affairs " and " private causes," into which 
" the delicacy of the House would not require him 
to enter minutely." Many years afterward he de- 
clared a different motive : " When I left Congress, 
in 1776, it was in the persuasion that our whole 
code must be reviewed and adapted to our repub- 
lican form of government, and now that we had 
no negative of councils, governors, and kings, to 
restrain us from doing right, that it should be cor- 
rected in all its parts, with a single eye to reason 
and the good sense of those for whose government 
it was framed." " I knew that our legislation, 
under the regal government, had many very vicious 
points which urgently required reformation, and I 
thought I could be of more use in forwarding that 
work." 

The ex-colonies reorganized themselves in the 
shape of independent states very readily. On 
August 13, 1777, Jefferson wrote to Franklin that, 
*' with respect to the State of Virginia, . . . the 



AGAIN IN THE HOUSE OF BURGESSES 37 

people seemed to have laid aside the monarchical, 
and taken up the republican, government with as 
much ease as would have attended their throwing 
off an old and putting on a new suit of clothes. 
We are at present in the complete and quiet exer- 
cise of well-organized government," Times which 
made this transfiguration so easy were naturally 
ripe for other changes also. It was the era of 
revolution, of destruction and re-creation, in orderly 
fashion to be sure, so far as possible ; but still the 
temper of the hour was favorable for a general 
revision of all the established laws and forms of 
society. The people were like a ploughed field in 
which the political sower might scatter broadcast 
new ideas and innovating doctrines with fair hope 
of an early harvest. Jefferson, reformer and rad- 
ical by nature, instinctively knew his opportunity 
and went forth zealously to this task. Certainly 
he cast strong and wholesome seed, and with lib- 
eral hand, into the ready social furrows around 
him. Much of his planting struck root at once ; 
much more lay in the ground for a long period, so 
that it was ten years before some of the bills intro= 
duced by him during the two years of his service 
were actually passed into laws ; only a little, unfor- 
tunately, never fructified. The results of his labor 
changed not only the surface but the fiindamental 
strata of the social and economical system of Vir. 
ginia. Of course he did not accomplish so much 
without assistance. George Mason, George Wythe, 
and Madison, then a " new member and young," 



38 THOMAS JEFFERSON 

were efficient coadjutors. But they were coadjutors 
and lieutenants only ; Jefferson was the principal 
and the leader. 

On October 7, 1776, he took his seat in the 
House of Delegates and at once was placed on 
many committees. On October 11 he obtained 
leave to bring in a bill establishing courts of jus- 
tice throughout the new State. On the next da} 
he obtained leave to bring in a bill to enable ten 
ants in tail to convey entailed property in fee 
simple. Two days later he reported a bill doing 
away with the whole system of entail. It was an 
audacious move. From generation to generation 
lands and slaves — almost the only valuable kinds 
of property in Virginia — had been handed down 
protected against creditors, even against the very 
extravagance of spendthrift owners ; and it was 
largely by this means that the quasi-nobility of the 
colony had succeeded in establishing and maintain- 
ing itself. A great groan seemed to go up from 
all respectable society at the terrible suggestion 
of Jefferson, a suggestion daringly cast before an 
Assembly thickly sprinkled with influential dele- 
gates who were bound by family ties and self-inter- 
est to defend the present system. Records of the 
times fail to explain the sudden and surprising suc- 
cess of a reform which there was every reason ta 
suppose could be carried through only very slowlj 
and by desperate contests ; we know little more 
than the sti-ange fact that the whole system cA 
entail in Virginia crashed to pieces almost literaHj 



AGAIN IN THE HOUSE OF BURGESSES 39 

in a day, carrying with it an " aristocracy " some- 
what brummagem, but the only one which has ever 
existed in the territory now of the United States. 

The cognate principle of primogeniture followed^ 
assailed by the same vigorous hand. At least, im- 
plored Pendleton, if the eldest son may no longer 
inherit all the lands and the slaves of his father, 
let him take a double share. No, said Jefferson, 
the leveler, not till he can eat a double allowance 
of food and do a double allowance of work. So 
an equal distribution of property was established 
among the children of intestates ; and though any 
one might still prefer by will an eldest son, yet 
the effect of the law upon public opinion was so 
great that all distinctions of this kind rapidly 
faded away. 

Thus was a great social revolution wrought in a 
few months by one man. In his grandiose, human- 
itarian, self-laudatory vein, Jefferson afterward 
wrote that his purpose was, "instead of an aris- 
tocracy of wealth, of more harm and danger than 
benefit to society, to make an opening for the aris- 
tocracy of virtue and talent, which nature has 
wisely provided for the direction of the interests 
of society, and scattered with equal hand through 
all its conditions." But his brilliant triumph cost 
him a price. That distinguished class, whose ex- 
istence as a social caste had been forever destroyed, 
reviled the destroyer from this time forth with 
relentless animosity ; and, even to the second and 
third generations, the descendants of many of these 



40 THOMAS JEFFERSON 

patrician families vindictively cursed the statesman 
who had placed them on a level with the rest of 
their countrymen. 

Jefferson's next important assault was upon the 
Established Church. Jefferson's religious views 
have given no small trouble to his biographers, 
who have been at much pains to make him out a 
sound Christian in the teeth of many charges of 
free-thinking. There is little evidence to show 
what his belief was at this period of his life. Cer- 
tainly he did not flout or openly reject Christian- 
ity ; not improbably he had a liberal tolerance for 
its tenets rather than any profound faith in them. 
On August 10, 1787, in a letter of advice to his 
young ward, Peter Carr, he dwelt upon religion at 
much length, telling Carr to examine the question 
independently. He added instructions so colorless 
that they resemble the charge of a carefully impar- 
tial judge to a jury. But in this especial matter 
labored impartiality usually signifies a negative 
prejudice. At least Jefferson showed that he did 
not regard Christianity as so established a truth 
that it was to be asserted dogmatically, and though 
he so cautiously seeks to conceal his own bias, yet 
one instinctively feels that this letter was not writ- 
ten by a believer. Had he believed^ in the proper 
sense of the word, he would have been unable tc 
place a very young man midway between the twc 
doors of belief and unbelief, setting both wide 
open, and furnishing no indication as to which led 
to error. Yet, as any inference may possibly be 



AGAIN IN THE HOUSE OF BURGESSES 41 

wrong, it is perhaps safer to admit that the prob- 
lem of his present faith or unfaith is not surely 
soluble, and to rest content with saying — what 
alone is now necessary — that he certainly viewed 
with just abhorrence the mediaeval condition of 
religious legislation in Virginia in 1777. 

He set about the task of clearing away this dead^ 
wood no less vigorously and extensively than ht 
had hewed at the obstructive social timbers. But, 
strange to say, the apparently sapless limbs gave 
the stouter resistance. He aimed at complete re- 
ligious freedom, substantially such as now exists 
throughout the United States ; but he was able 
only to induce a legislature, in which churchmen 
largely predominated, to take some initial steps in 
that direction. Yet the impetus which he gave, 
refreshed by others during a few succeeding years, 
at last brought the law-makers to the goal, so that 
in 1786 the full length of his reform was reached 
and his original " bill for establishing religious 
freedom " was passed, with immaterial amend- 
ments. 

Here again it is to be said that Jefferson was in 
that position in which alone he ever won success ; 
he was the mouthpiece of multitudes too numerous 
not to be heard, the leader of a popular movement 
too massive to be obstructed. The majority oi 
citizens were dissenters from the established EpirJ= 
copal Church, and were resolved no longer to con- 
tribute of their funds for its support. Jefferson 
says that "the first republican legislature . . » 



42 THOMAS JEFFERSON 

was crowded with petitions to abolish this spiritual 
tyranny." This fact gave him the strength that 
he needed. He only required, but he always did 
require, that confidence and inspiration which 
came to him from the sense of having at his back 
largely superior numbers ; it mattered not that 
they were ignorant, so that they were much the 
greater number. It is impossible to imagine Jef- 
ferson combating a popular error, controlling a 
mistaken people, encountering a great clamor of 
the masses. From these earliest days of his pub- 
lic career we find him always moving and feeling 
with the huge multitude, catching with sensitive 
ear the deep mutterings of its will, long before the 
inarticulate sound was intelligible to others in high 
places, encouraged by its later and hoarser outcry, 
gathering his force and power from its presence, 
his incentive and persistence from its laudation. 

Almost immediately after taking his seat among 
the delegates, Jefferson had been placed at the 
head of a committee of five, charged with the gen- 
eral revision of all the laws of Virginia. It was 
an enormous task, of which he did much more 
than his just share. Some of the legislation re- 
ferred to in the preceding pages found its place 
in the report of this committee. Other important 
matters, also included in the same report, can only 
be mentioned. The seat of government was re« 
moved from the commercial metropolis of Wil- 
liamsburg to the small but central village of Rich- 
mond. The like principle has since prevailed in 



AGAIN IN THE HOUSE OF BURGESSES 43 

the selection of much the largest proportion of our 
state capitals. A bill for promoting the prompt 
naturalization of foreigners gave form to the sub- 
sequent practice of the country in this matter, and 
was only blameworthy because it failed to protect 
against a large and easy admission by checks of 
fitness in the way of knowledge and intelligence. 
Like much of Jefferson's work it was too demo- 
cratic, as if all men must be fit for all things ; 
also, like some of his work, it was not justified by 
his own principles declared at other times when 
his thoughts happened to be taking a different 
direction. A code of punishment for crime was 
drawn up, which was a vast improvement upon 
the merciless severity of preceding laws, but which 
retained to an unjustifiable extent and against the 
wishes of Jefferson the principle of retaliation. 
An elaborate school system was also devised ; but 
the narrow prejudice of the rich planters pre- 
vented it from ever being fully adopted and pro- 
perly set in working order. 

As has been intimated, this mass of legislation, 
of which only the more prominent portions have 
been mentioned, was not all enacted during the 
two years of Jefferson's presence in the House of 
Delegates. Much of it, notably in the criminal 
department, lay untouched for a long time ; but 
the laws reported by Jefferson formed a sort of 
reservoir from which the legislature drew from 
time to time, during many following years, so 
much as they had leisure or inclination to use. It 



44 THOMAS JEFFERSON 

was not until the close of the Revolutionary war 
that leisure was found really to finish the whole 
business. But when at last the end was reached, 
few serious alterations had been made ; and though 
it would be an exaggeration to assert that by 1786- 
87 the statute-book of Virginia had become a Jef- 
fersonian code, yet it is within the truth to say 
that the impress of his mind was in every part of 
the volume, and that especially the social legisla- 
tion was due chiefly to his influence. 

Only in one grave matter — gravest, indeed, of 
all — he and a few humane and noble coadjutors 
encountered an utter defeat, which cost Virginia a 
great price of retribution in years thereafter. This 
concerned negro slavery. Though Jefferson did 
not, like his friend Wythe, emancipate his own 
slaves, yet from his early years he had been 
strongly opposed to slavery, as were many of the 
best and wisest Virginians of that day. Now the 
committee of revisers, pondering deeply on this 
difficult problem, and having it very much in their 
hearts to cleanse their State from a malady which 
they foresaw must otherwise prove fatal, contented 
themselves in the first instance with returning in 
their report a " mere digest of the existing laws 
. . . without any intimation of a plan for a future 
and general emancipation. It was thought better 
that this should be kept back, and attempted only 
by way of amendment, whenever the bill should be 
brought on. The principles of the amendment, 
however, were agreed on, that is to say, the free- 



AGAIN IN THE HOUSE OF BURGESSES 45 

dom of all bom after a certain day, and deporta- 
tion at a proper age." But all this strategy was 
of no avail. " It was found that the public mind 
would not yet bear the proposition, nor will it bear 
it even to this day; yet," continues Jefferson, writ 
ing in his autobiography in 1821, " the day is not 
distant when it must bear and adopt it, or worse 
will follow. Nothing is more certainly written in 
the book of fate than that these people are to be 
free." How fortunate would it have been for Vir- 
ginia could she have been persuaded by the words 
spoken by her son, wise beyond his time, and by 
his fellow prophets in this great cause ! 

Yet when one examines Jefferson's scheme in its 
details, its primordial destiny of failure becomes at 
once evident. His project was as follows : AU 
negroes born of slave parents after the passing of 
the act were to be free, but to a certain age were 
to remain with their parents, and were " then to 
be brought up at the public expense to tillage, 
arts, or sciences, according to their geniuses, till 
the females should be eighteen and the males 
twenty-one years of age, when they should be colo- 
nized to such place as the circumstances of the 
time should render most proper, sending them out 
with arms, implements of household and of the 
handicraft arts, seeds, pairs of the useful domestic 
animals, etc." The United States were then " to 
declare them a free and independent people, and 
extend to them our alliance and protection, till 
they have acquired strength ; and to send vessels 



46 THOMAS JEFFERSON 

at the same time to other parts of the world for an 
equal number of white inhabitants, to induce whom 
to migrate hither proper encouragements were to 
be proposed." 

In the notion that such a costly and elaborate 
scheme might be carried into effect we get a mani- 
festation of the most dangerous weakness of Jeffer- 
son's mind. His visionary tendency would thus 
often get the better of his shrewder sense, and the 
line of demarcation between the practicable and the 
impracticable would then become shadowy or wholly 
obliterated for him. In palliation it can only be 
remembered that he lived in an age of social and 
political theorizing, and that he was a man emi- 
nently characteristic of his era, sensitive to its in- 
fluences and broadly reflecting its blunders not less 
than its wisdom. 

Probably even at this early date the slavery 
problem had become insoluble. Certainly Jeffer- 
son's opinions concerning the two races in their 
possible relations towards each other rendered it 
insoluble by him. His observation had thoroughly 
convinced him of a truth, which all white men al- 
ways have believed and probably always will be- 
lieve in the private depths of their hearts, that the 
negro is inferior to the white in mental capacity. 
Yet, if this were so, a measure of inferiority much 
greater than any one ventured to insist upon would 
not justify the enslavement of the black men. It 
was from another conviction that Jefferson's prac- 
tical difficulty arose ; he felt sure that " the two 



AGAIN IN THE HOUSE OF BURGESSES 47 

races, equally free, cannot live in the same govern- 
ment." The attempt, he predicted, would " divide 
Virginians into parties and produce convulsions 
which would probably never end but in the exter- 
mination of the one or the other race." Perhaps 
in this he was wrong. Yet holding these two firm 
convictions, it is impossible to see what better plan 
he could have adopted than that which he did 
adopt, impossible though it was of execution. At 
least his prescience of a condition of things at 
which, as he said, " human nature must shudder," 
proves his social and political foresight. 

In connection with a topic which was destined 
soon to become so important in the history of the 
nation, a few words may be pardoned, though they 
carry us for a moment away from the subject of 
the Virginian reforms. Some ten years later Jef- 
ferson wrote a letter to his friend M. de Warville, 
of Paris, which the abolitionists of a subsequent 
generation were so fond of quoting that they made 
it widely known. Therein he says : " The whole 
commerce between master and slave is a perpetual 
exercise of the most boisterous passions ; the most 
unremitting despotism on the one part and degrad- 
ing submissions on the other. Our children see 
this and learn to imitate it. With the morals of 
the people their industry also is destroyed. For iu 
a warm climate no man will labor for himself who 
can make another labor for him." He then adds 
this alarming suggestion, which has been often 
repeated since his day : " And can the liberties of 



18 THOMAS JEFFERSON 

a nation be thought secure when we have removed 
their only firm basis, a conviction in the minds of 
the people that these liberties are of the gift of 
God ? That they are not to be violated but with 
his wrath ? Indeed, I tremble for my country when 
I reflect that God is just ; that his justice cannot 
sleep forever ; that, considering numbers, nature 
and natural means only, a revolution of the wheel of 
fortune, an exchange of situation, is among possible 
events ; that it may become probable by super- 
natural interference ! The Almighty has no attri- 
bute which can take side with us in such a contest." 
This letter is not only interesting as an utterance 
of Jefferson's views concerning slavery, but also as 
an indication of certain of his characteristics. It 
is an excellent instance of the way in which his 
pen was very apt to run away with him. The 
suggestion by a man of his religious opinions, that 
it might be reasonably anticipated that God would 
at some time intervene to reverse the positions of 
the white race and the black race, shows that emo- 
tional tendency which often led him into utterances 
by no means fit to encounter criticism. This fan- 
ciful efflorescence of his notion that the two races, 
equally free, could not exist side by side, was not 
likely seriously to alarm men of practical minds. 
On the other hand, the letter also manifested his 
prudence in action in sharp contrast with his ex- 
travagance in speech. For he declined to make 
what might prove an embarrassing commitment 
by joining the French society for the abolition of 



AGAIN IN THE HOUSE OF BURGESSES 49 

the slave trade ; and he gave only the very thin 
excuse that " the influence and information of the 
friends of this proposition in France will be far 
above the need of my association." Jefferson's en- 
thusiasm of ten carried him, with an impetuous rush, 
to the edge of personal imprudence ; but he always 
stopped short at the line. He distinguished with 
perfect skill and self-control between extravagant 
words and ill-advised acts. In reviewing Jeffer- 
son's position as to slavery, the fair conclusion 
seems to be that he condemned it with the zeal 
of one who was offended by its moral evils and who 
feared its political perils, that he was honest in 
advising his fellow citizens to enter upon a scheme 
of abolition, and that he would have heartily aided 
therein, but that so long as the community re- 
frained from this step he, as an individual, did not 
feel called upon to go farther than an occasional 
expression of his views. 

One practical measure he did carry. Virginia, 
while still a colony, had made many efforts, ren- 
dered futile by royal obstruction, to stop the im- 
portation of slaves. In 1778, " in the very first 
session held under the republican government," Jef- 
ferson introduced a bill for this purpose which was 
readily passed without opposition. With this h.@ 
was much and justly pleased, saying : " It will iff 
some measure stop the increase of this great politi» 
cal and moral evil, while the minds of our citizens 
may be ripening for a complete emancipation of 
human nature." What he meant by this vague 



BO THOMAS JEFFERSON 

and absurd phrase, so characteristic of his habits 
of expression, it is not easy to say, and for the 
moment one almost forgets the high deserts of 
the reformer in irritation at his chatter about " tka 
complete emancipation of human nature.'* 



CHAPTER V 

GOVERNOR OP VIRGINIA 

Patrick Henry, first governor of the independ. 
ent State of Virginia, served, by reelections, three 
successive years, and was then, by the Constitution, 
ineligible for another term. In January, 1779, the 
legislature chose Jefferson to succeed him on the 
following June 1. The honor was not greatly to 
be coveted, yet Jefferson found a competitor for it 
in the friend of his youth, John Page, over whom 
he triumphed by a very few votes. The old good 
feeling between the two contestants was very cred- 
itably preserved throughout the political campaign, 
and perhaps by the time Jefferson left office he 
would have been glad if Page had been the success- 
ful candidate, and Page might rejoice at the oppo- 
site conclusion. For in this chapter of Jefferson's 
life the task of his biographers has been to encoun- 
ter the widespread impression that his administra- 
tion was disgracefully inefficient. Mr. Kandall 
especially has discussed this matter elaborately,, 
and his facts and arguments, when rescued drip- 
ping from the sea of rhetoric and fine writing in 
which he nearly drowns them, appear to establish 
a satisfactory defense. Yet a man in public life 



62 THOMAS JEFFERSON 

does not achieve a complete success when he can be 
defended against charges of gross incompetency; 
and the negative assertion that Jefferson did not 
make a bad governor is by no means equivalent to 
the positive conimendation that he made a really 
good one. The truth is that he was not fitted to 
be a " war governor," and though he did as well 
as he could, he did not do so well as some others 
might have done. 

Until very nearly the close of Henry's third 
term, Virginia had enjoyed a happy immunity 
from invasion. Otherwise, however, she had borne 
her full share of patriotic burdens, and it may be 
imagined that the willing steed, spurred for three 
years by so hard a rider as Henry, was somewhat 
breathless and exhausted when he left the saddle. 
So, indeed, Jefferson found it. Men, horses, and 
food, Virginia had lavishly given ; also arms and 
money, so far as she had been able. At last the 
point was close at hand at which further contribu- 
tions involved such severe suffering that they must 
inevitably come slowly and reluctantly. Neverthe- 
less Jefferson's sole business was to keep the stream 
still flowing and replenished. At first he was able 
to do surprisingly well. When he called for re- 
cruits for Greene's army in the Carolinas, many 
farmers came gallantly forward from the already 
sorely depleted fields. By September, 1780, there 
were not muskets for the men who were willing to 
march ; neither a shilling in the treasury ; wagons 
and horses could be had only by impressment, a 



GOVERNOR OF VIRGINIA 63 

hazardous pressure to put upon a people fighting 
for freedom. But it was inevitable, and it was 
applied to all alike ; a wagon, a pair of horses, 
and two negro drivers were taken from Governor 
Jefferson's own farm. A month later he hopes 
the new levies " will be all shod," and cannot say 
*' what proportion will have blankets," though he 
is purchasing " every one which can be found out ; 
there is a prospect of furnishing about half of 
them with tents." 

It was a cruel blow, soon after, to learn that a 
large proportion of these scarce and valuable sup- 
plies were destroyed or captured, and that Corn- 
wallis, with his face set northward, was leading 
a victorious army towards Virginia. It was an 
almost miraculous good fortune which checked his 
march a short distance from the border. But in 
the moment of apprehension Jefferson was bitterly 
blamed for having uselessly expended Virginian 
resources in Carolina. The accusation was grossly 
unjust. The governor had been perfectly right in 
sending all the men and supplies he could muster 
to the places where the fighting was going forward. 
How else was the war to be maintained ? What 
better course could be devised, not only for secur- 
ing a general and ultimate success, but also for 
keeping actual war at a distance from Virginia ? 
The blunder would have been to send meagre sup- 
plies, and retain a still insufficient reserve at home, 
thus allowing the English to conquer in detail. 

In another matter, more in his line, Jefferson 



64 THOMAS JEFFERSON 

again showed good judgment. The enterprising 
frontier fighter, General George Rogers Clarke, by 
a bold and soldierly movement in the far north- 
western part of the State, captured the British 
colonel Hamilton. This officer had been accused 
of many atrocities, and though the charges prob- 
ably outran the truth, yet Jefferson was justified 
in believing him a guilty man.^ He accordingly 
ordered the colonel and two more officers to be 
put in irons and closely confined. The British 
general, Phillips, protested. Jefferson referred the 
matter to Washington, who, with much hesitation 
and apparent reluctance, advised a mitigation of 
the extreme severity. But the dose was whole- 
some, and Jefferson's stern readiness to administer 
it had a salutary effect. He had in his keeping a 
large number of British prisoners, including many 
of high rank ; and his avowed purpose, thus sub- 
stantially enforced, to repay cruelty in kind and 
to retaliate hangings, irons, close confinement, and 
prison ships with identical measures upon his own 
part, undoubtedly checked the brutal tendencies of 
too many of the English officers. 

Almost the last occurrence in Virginia under 
Governor Henry's administration had been a Brit- 
ish raid. A dozen vessels landed some two thou- 
sand troops, who burned and ravaged extensively 

^ Professor Tucker in his Life of Jefferson undertakes to de- 
fend Hamilton. But his defense amounts to little or nothing 
more than that he knew Hamilton, and thought him quite too 
good a fellow and too much of a gentleman to have been guilty 
^ the behavior alleged against him. 



GOVERNOR OF VIRGINIA 65 

for a few days, wholly unmolested, and then re- 
turned as they had come. The affair was a dan- 
gerous indication to the English of the destruction 
which they could easily accomplish in this great 
reservoir of supplies. Yet it was not until late in 
October, 1780, that they repeated the enterprise. 
On the 22d of that month news came to Governor 
Jefferson that a fleet of sixty sail had anchored in 
Hampton Roads ; four of the vessels were armed, 
while transports were putting on shore a land force 
rouglily estimated at upwards of twenty-five hun- 
dred men. This was terrible intelligence in a 
thinly-settled country, where it must be long before 
an adequate defensive array could be assembled. 
Yet even men were more plentiful than muskets, 
and Jefferson sadly wrote : " It is mortifying to 
suppose that a people, able and zealous to contend 
with their enemy, should be reduced to fold their 
arms for want of the means of defense." Two or 
three weeks later " the prospect of arms " continued 
to be " very bad indeed." Moreover, in Albemarle 
County, hard by the anchorage ground, there were 
some four thousand prisoners of war, Burgoyne's 
army, who had been consigned to Virginia for safe- 
keeping. Cornwallis, having lately defeated Gates 
badly at Camden, was less than one hundred and 
fifty miles from the Virginian border. A messen- 
ger from General Leslie, the commander of the 
invading body, was captured, having in his mouth 
a little quid containing a note to Cornwallis indi- 
cating a plan to unite both armies. In such immi* 



66 THOMAS JEFFERSON 

nent jeopardy the State and the governor stood 
helpless, but ultimately were saved by good fortune 
and lack of enterprise on the part of the English. 
The North Carolina patriots harassed Cornwallis 
till he actually fell back to the southward. Leslie 
lay a month in camp, making no movement, then 
embarked and sailed away. Virginia had another 
surprising respite. 

The third time the State was to fare worse. On 
the morning of Sunday, December 31, 1780, Jef- 
ferson again received intelligence that a fleet of 
twenty-seven vessels had entered Chesapeake Bay 
on the preceding day. Whatever may have been 
the case heretofore, it cannot be denied that he was 
now culpably remiss. It is true that he did not 
know that the fleet might not be French, or that 
its destination might not be Baltimore. But he did 
know that it certainly might be British, that its 
destination might be Williamsburg, Petersburg, or 
Richmond, and that in such event the best speed 
could not collect the Virginian levies rapidly 
enough. It was the dead of winter, not a severe 
season in Virginia, and when the husbandman is 
idle. It is impossible to suggest a satisfactory 
reason why Jefferson should not, in such proba- 
ble and instant emergency, have prepared at once 
for the worst. He did not ; he simply dispatched 
General Nelson, with abundant authority, to the 
lower river counties. Then he waited. 

On Tuesday morning, fifty valuable but wasted 
hours after the first news reached him, he at last 



GOVERNOR OF VIRGINIA 57 

got definite information which showed him how 
stupid he had been. The fleet was hostile and was 
coming up the James. Then he did what he ought 
to have done at eight o'clock a. m. of the preced- 
ing Sunday : he ordered out forty-seven hundred 
militiamen from the nearest counties. Further- 
more, having at last got fairly at work, he showed 
considerable personal energy. He got the public 
papers and some stores and articles of value across 
the river to a less exposed place, and he galloped 
about the country terribly busy and excited, till he 
killed his horse and was obliged to mount an un- 
broken colt. Eighty-four hours he was in the sad- 
dle. But the enemy cared little for all his prancing 
to and fro on blooded steed or raw colt. They 
ascended the river and entered Richmond, burned 
and destroyed to their hearts' content, reembarked, 
and dropped down stream again. The militia were 
only beginning to assemble when the British were 
back intrenching themselves in Leslie's deserted 
camp. The governor returned to the devastated 
village which constituted his capital. He had 
shown that he was deficient in prompt decision ; in 
a word, that he was not the man for the place and 
the times. 

The invaders seemed to be established for a long 
stay, and with slight chance of being disturbed ; for 
the " fatal want of arms " still continued. There 
was not a regular soldier in the State, nor arms to 
put in the hands of the militia. Matters were 
nearly as bad as in North Carolina, where, Jeffer. 



58 THOMAS JEFFERSON 

son wrote, the Americans could be saved only by 
the " moderation and caution " of their adversaries, 
■ — a slender dependence indeed! It added to the 
exasperation of the Virginians that the traitor, 
Arnold, was in command upon their soil. Jeffer- 
son tried to devise a scheme for kidnaping him ; 
but it may be conceived that such a bird was not 
to be snared by such a fowler. 

For several months the British kept Virginia in 
a state of nervous inquietude. It is easy to im- 
agine how Jefferson, as the winter and spring crept 
forward on leaden heels, must have counted first 
the months, then the weeks, then even the very 
days, which had yet to elapse before his painful 
responsibility would reach its end. For the sec- 
ond year of his administration would close on 
June 1, and he had wisely resolved not to be a 
candidate for reelection. Possibly mutterings of 
dissatisfaction alarmed him for his success. But 
in his autobiography he says : " From a belief 
that, under the pressure of the invasion under 
which we were then laboring, the public would 
have more confidence in a military chief, and 
that, the military commander being invested with 
the civil power also, both might be wielded with 
more energy, promptitude, and effect for the de- 
fense of the State, I resigned the administration 
at the end of my second year." There was some 
talk among the discouraged Virginians, during the 
dark days now close at hand, of setting over them- 
selves a dictator. This classic but mistaken expe- 



GOVERNOR OF VIRGINIA 59 

dient Jefferson had the good sense to oppose ; he 
afterward said that " the very thought alone was 
treason against the people, was treason against 
mankind in general." Fortunately, his remon- 
strances prevailed in due season. 

April came and was fast passing. Only May 
remained before the wearied governor would be 
governor no longer. But fortune had yet one 
more buffet to deal him at parting. In the latter 
part of April, Cornwallis set out on a northward 
march, and, laying waste as he advanced, came 
into Virginia. By May 20 he was in Petersburg, 
and the State lay at his mercy. Jefferson could 
devise nothing better than to implore Washington 
to hasten to its rescue. The legislature, which had 
thrice already, since the year came in, fled in alarm 
from Richmond, had been adjourned to meet on 
May 24 at the safer village of Charlottesville, at 
the foot of the hills on which was Monticello. It 
was not till May 28 that a quorum came together, 
and then they deferred from day to day the elec- 
tion of a new governor. Jefferson's term expired, 
but still he had to hold over, since no successor 
had been chosen. Things were in this condition 
wlien, on June 4, the early summer sun not having 
yet risen, a hard-ridden steed was reined up at 
the governor's door. The rider had galloped in 
the night from an eastward county-town to say that 
a small body of British cavalry under the dreaded 
Tarlton was pushing rapidly along the road to 
Charlottesville and Monticello ; they would prob* 



(JO THOMAS JEFFERSON 

ably be hardly three hours behind him. In this 
emergency Jefferson certainly showed no lack of 
personal courage. That is to say, he was not 
panic stricken. He did not go to Charlottesville, 
because he wisely reflected that the members of the 
legislature were able to run away from the town 
without his assistance. He stayed tranquilly at 
home, breakfasted, sent away his family, and con- 
cealed his plate and papers, all very leisurely. In- 
deed, he owed his escape from capture more to 
good luck than to any intelligent precaution on his 
own part. Had he fallen into the enemy's hands 
he would have been thought to have acted stu- 
pidly. As it turned out, he did get safely away 
into the woods, and Colonel Tarlton, disappointed 
of his prey, had only to ride back again. But the 
ignominious scattering of all the ruling officials of 
the State served to fasten still another irritating, 
though really undeserved, stigma upon Jefferson's 
administration. It was the more vexatious be- 
cause he ought to have been freed several days 
before from so much as a technical responsibility. 
He was also then, and long afterward, made very 
angry by imputations upon his courage, as though 
his flight had been ignominious. It is needless to 
say that it was not so. He could hardly have been 
expected to stand alone in his doorway and shoot 
at the body of dragoons. 

Tarlton's men appear to have taken nothing at 
Jefferson's house beyond food and drink, in which 
refreshment even the owner himself could hardly 



GOVERNOR OF VIRGINIA 61 

have wished to stint them in that land of un- 
questioning hospitality. Jefferson afterward said, 
*' Tarlton behaved very genteelly with me." But 
at another of his farms, which fell within reach of 
Cornwallis's force, Jefferson fared worse. It was 
not long since certain British commissioners, nomi- 
nally sent on a futile errand of reconciliation, had 
declared that the inevitable conclusion of events 
must be that the colonies wovild become depend- 
ents of the French crown, and that England de- 
signed to make the gain of as little value to France 
as possible. The innuendo of this announcement 
was soon made the basis of practical operations ; 
and the British armies, devoting themselves more 
to devastation than to warfare, harried the country 
upon all sides. Jefferson suffered with the rest, 
and has left a formidable record of the pillage. 
All his husbanded crops and one hundred and fifty 
cattle, sheep and hogs were seized for food ; all 
his growing crops were wantonly destroyed, and 
all his fences were burned ; not only were his 
many valuable horses taken, but the throats of 
colts too young to be used were barbarously cut. 
Thirty slaves also were carried away. " Had this 
been to give them freedom," Jefferson said, Corn- 
wallis " would have done right ; but it was to con- 
sign them to inevitable death from the small-pox 
and putrid fever then raging in his camps," as in 
fact became their wretched fate. It is not surpris- 
ing that in later days Jefferson cherialied a bitter 
hostility towards a nation which had not only cur« 



62 THOMAS JEFFERSON 

tailed his popularity and reputation among his 
countrymen, but also attacked his property in a 
spirit of extermination. 

The censorious temper which many Virginians 
felt towards Jefferson found open expression in 
the legislature during the last few months of his 
administration ; and even some preparation, though 
just how much cannot be accurately ascertained, 
was made for an investigation. Certain it is that 
Mr. George Nicholas moved for an inquiry at the 
next session,^ and that he was by no means without 
supporters. The prevalence of this sort of talk 
cut Jefferson deeply, and he went out of office in a 
very bitter frame of mind, resolved to leave for- 
ever the public service. He only wished to return 
to the next session of the legislature in order to 
court the threatened inquiry. To enable him to 
do this a member resigned, and then Albemarle 
County paid him the handsome honor of electing 
him one of its delegates, actually by an unani- 
mous vote. Having taken his seat, he stated to the 
House his wish to meet the charges lately made 
against him. No one replied. He then read cer- 
tain " objections " which had been informally fur- 
nished to him by Nicholas, and gave his reply to 
them. Still no one rose to assail him. It was in 
December, 1781, and the recent surrender of Corn- 

^ Jefferson afterward was on friendly terms with Nicholas, say- 
ing that he was an able and honest man, and that this motion 
■was the blunder of an ardent youth. Nicholas also afterward 
made the amende honorable to Jefferson. 



GOVERNOR OF VIRGINIA 63 

wallis at Yorktown had probably softened some- 
what the recent asperities. His friends became 
sufficiently emboldened to ofPer a resolution, which 
was readily passed, thanking him for his "impar- 
tial, upright, and attentive " administration, bearing 
testimony to his "ability, rectitude, and integ- 
rity," and avowing a purpose thus to remove " all 
unmerited censure." The closing phrase might 
mean much or little, and the adjectives and nouns, 
shrewdly selected, did not express exhaustive praise 
of an administration in time of war. But the whole 
constituted a mollifying application and an agree- 
ment to have done with unkindly criticism. Gen- 
eral W^ashington also had closed with courteous 
words a letter, which he had lately found occasion 
to write to Jefferson, making a sort of certificate 
of good character. With such comfort as he could 
find in these testimonials, Jefferson withdrew to 
private life. He had had the misfortune to be 
placed in a position for which he was ill adapted, 
and in which perhaps no one could have given sat- 
isfaction. He had merited some praise and some 
censure, and got less of the former and more of the 
latter than was quite just. Altogether he had had 
decidedly hard fortune. 



CHAPTER VI 

IN CONGRESS AGAIN 

It soon became evident that the ex-governor had 
experienced a wound far too deep to be healed by 
the gentle palliatives which had been consider- 
ately, but not enthusiastically, given to him. In an 
extremely bitter and resentful frame of mind, he 
moodily secluded himself at home, and reiterated 
upon every opportunity his resolve never again to 
be drawn forth into public life. He busied himself 
with his plantations, the education of his children, 
and the care of his invalid wife. In the winter 
months, early in 1782, he put the finishing touches 
to a labor which he had begun in the preceding 
spring, his well-known and useful " Notes on Vir- 
ginia." In the spring of the same year he obsti- 
nately refused to attend the session of the legisla- 
ture, though he was still a member. His enemies 
severely criticised this conduct, which his friends 
could not easily defend ; Madison privately de- 
plored such a display of irreconcilable temper, and 
Monroe more openly wrote him a plain letter of 
tebuke. But he was not to be moved ; his only 
reply was a reiteration of his rankling sense of 
injury, and his obstinate purpose to have done 
forever with the public service. 



IN CONGRESS AGAIN 65 

Yet it is probable that a more amiable incentive 
for such conduct mingled with his anger, though 
he was too proud and too hurt to name it. For 
his wife was in very ill health. In May, 1782, 
she lay in with her sixth child, and thereafter 
there could be no real hope of her recovery. Jef- 
ferson was tender and assiduous in his care of her 
as it was possible for man to be, and when at last, 
in September, the final day came, the scene was a 
terrible one. For three weeks after she died he 
did not leave his room ; afterward he had recourse 
to long wanderings in the solitary wood-paths of 
the mountain. His oldest daughter was his con- 
stant companion during these weeks of intense 
grief, of which she has left a harrowing picture, 
showing Jefferson to have been not only affection- 
ate but very emotional in temperament. 

It is said that Mrs. Jefferson, almost in the 
extreme moment, begged her husband never to 
give her children a stepmother, and the pledge 
which he then so solemnly made he ever faithfully 
kept. Henceforth Martha, his first-born child, was 
to hold the warmest corner in his heart. She and 
Mary, the fourth child, were the only ones of six 
that were born to him who lived to mature years, 
and only Martha survived him. But the children 
of his brother-in-law, Dabney Carr, who had died 
young and poor, had been taken into his home, 
and remained there like his own. He was not 
only very kind and fond towards all these young 
people of his household, but he gave to their bring- 



66 THOISIAS JEFFERSON 

ing up a conscientious and untiring care.^ The 
letters which he wrote to them, and which have ' 
been reproduced with encomiums by admiring bi- 
ographers, are always absurdly didactic, and often 
remind the reader of the effusions of the late Mrs. 
Barbauld, or of the virtue and wisdom enshrined 
in the pages of " Sanford and Merton ; " but they 
are kindly and indicative of a lively interest. 

In September, 1776, Congress nominated Jeffer- 
son, with Franklin and Deane, to frame a treaty 
of alliance and commerce with France ; but he de- 
clined the mission. In June, 1781, he was again 
deputed to go abroad with Franklin, Adams, Jay, 
and Laurens, to negotiate a treaty of peace ; but 
again he pleaded personal reasons as an excuse. 
Two months after the death of his wife news came 
to him at the seat of his friend Colonel Cary, at 
Ampthill, where he was nursing his own children 
and the young Carrs through the process of inocu- 
lation, that he had been again appointed upon the 
same duty. The proposition came opportunely, 
offering an activity and change of scene at once 
wholesome and agreeable. He accepted, and made 

^ The list of Jefferson's children is as follows : Martha JefFer- 
Son, bom September 27, 1772, married to Thomas Mann Randolph 
on February 23, 1790, died October 10, 1836; Jane Randolph 
Jefferson, born April 3, 1774, died September, 1775 ; a son, bom 
May 28, 1777, died June 14, 1777 ; Mary (or Maria) Jefferson, 
bom August 1, 1778, married to John W. Eppes on October 13, 
1797, and died April 17, 1804 ; a daughter, born November 3, 
1780, died April 15, 1781 ; Lucy Elizabeth Jefferson, born May 8^ 
1782, died ,1784. 



IN CONGRESS AGAIN 67 

ready for departure ; but the presence of English 
cruisers off the coast delayed the sailing of vessels, 
and before he could get away news came showing 
that the negotiations were so far advanced that his 
presence would be substantially useless. So in 
February, 1783, he again returned home. 

But another door for reentrance into public life 
was foi'thwith opened. On June 6, 1783, he was 
chosen by the Virginia legislature a member of 
Congress, whither he repaired in November follow- 
ing. That body had fallen into something very 
like contempt, and many gentlemen conceived that 
the honor, such as it was, of membership need not 
entail the trouble of attendance. So it happened 
that, though the treaty of peace was to be ratified 
before a certain near date, only seven States were 
represented, whereas the assent of nine was neces- 
sary. Some members proposed that the seven 
should ratify, upon the chance that Great Britain 
would never detect the insufficiency. But this dis- 
honorable expedient was vigorously opposed by 
Jefferson and others. At last an urgent appeal 
brought in some of the delinquent members ; and 
Jefferson had the pleasure of signing the treaty 
which established the Independence declared by 
his document seven years before. It fell to him, 
also, to play an important part in arranging the 
ceremonial of Washington's resignation. 

The need of an executive power more permanent 
than this intermittent Congress led Jefferson to 
propose a " committee of the States," to be com- 



68 THOMAS JEFFERSON 

posed of one member from each State and to re. 
main in session during the recesses. The plan 
was adopted, but resulted in complete failure by 
reason of factions in the committee. He showed a 
sounder wisdom in his criticism of Morris's report 
on the national finances. That gentleman, by in- 
genious figuring, had devised a money unit which 
was a perfectly accurate common measure between 
the currencies of all the States. This was the 
T?Vo P^''^ ^^ ^ dollar. Jefferson justly found 
fault with a system which would make all the 
little computations of daily life ridiculously vast 
and complex. For example, he said, the price of a 
loaf of bread, ^ oi a. dollar, would be 72 units ; 
of a pound of butter, J- of a dollar, 288 units ; of 
a horse, worth $80, 115,200 units ; while a national 
debt of $80,000,000 would be 115,200,000,000 
units. To escape such palpable folly he suggested 
the dollar as the unit. 

Jefferson further had the pleasure of tendering 
to Congress Virginia's deed, ceding her vast north- 
western territory to be held as the common pro- 
perty of all the States. Directly afterward he was 
made one of the committee charged to prepare a 
plan for the government of this region. The re- 
port was doubtless composed by him, since the 
draft in the State Department is in his handwrit- 
ing. It contains the substance of the famous Ordi- 
nance of the Northwestern Territory. Its most 
lonorable provision is, " that after the year 1800 
rf the Christian era, there shall be neither slavery 



IN CONGRESS AGAIN 69 

nor involuntary servitude in any of the said States, 
otherwise than in punishment of crimes," etc. Yet 
beside this humane and noble piece of statesman- 
ship we have a glimpse of that absurd element in 
Jefferson's mind which his admirers sought to ex- 
cuse by calling him a " philosopher." The matter 
is small, to be sure, but suggestive. He proposed 
as names for the several subdivisions of this ter- 
ritory : Sylvania, Michigania, Cherronesus, Assen- 
isippia, Metropotamia, Illinoia, Saratoga, Wash- 
ington, Polypotamia, and Pelisipia. Fortunately 
these wondrous classic titles have not af&icted the 
children of our common schools. But much less 
happily the clause prohibiting slavery was lost, 
only six of the Northeastern and Middle States 
voting for it. 

Such were the last legislative undertakings of 
Mr. Jefferson. On May 7, 1784, he left Congress- 



CHAPTER Vn 

MINISTER TO FRANCE 

Simultaneously with his retirement from Con' 
grass, Jefferson was for the fourth time appointed 
to a foreign mission. His errand was to aid Dr. 
Franklin and John Adams in negotiating treaties 
of commerce. He sailed from Boston July 5, 1784, 
and arrived in Portsmouth July 30. He proceeded 
at once to Paris, and soon established himself there 
in a handsome house, which he afterward ex- 
changed for one of considerable magnificence, and 
in all respects he made arrangements for living in 
very good style. His salary was nine thousand 
dollars a year, and with all the aid he could get 
from his private fortune he was hard pushed to 
meet his expenses. His daughter Martha he placed 
at the most fashionable and exclusive convent- 
school in the country. 

He soon found that he could do little for the 
United States beyond representing them creditably 
and serving as a respectable sample of the new 
trans-Atlantic people. Nor were his duties much 
changed when, in the following spring, the trio of 
diplomatists was broken up by the departure of 
Franklin for home and of John Adams for Eng* 



MINISTER TO FRANCE 71 

land, and by his own appointment as resident min- 
ister to France. The unpleasant truth was that 
the ancient monarchies of Europe knew little and 
cared less for the parvenu republics of a distant 
continent, and were indifferent concerning commer- 
cial treaties with a people whose commerce was an 
unknown and unvalued quantity. "Lady Rock- 
minster has took us up," said the Begum Claver- 
ing to Pendennis ; and very much in the same way 
France had taken up the North American States. 
She vouched for their respectability, treated them 
publicly with pointed courtesy, and affably ex- 
tended to their representatives the hospitalities of 
her court for holding diplomatic intercourse with 
other powers. But when these other powers, though 
civil enough, were wholly uninterested, France 
could not further help her proteges. Indeed, she 
herself disappointed expectation when it came to 
actual business. Jefferson, who had decided no- 
tions about the advantages of free trade, was un- 
tiring in his efforts to mitigate the severity of 
the French regulations, and his diplomatic corre- 
spondence with Vergennes and Montmorin fairly 
reeks with the flavors of whale oils, salt-fish, and 
tobacco. Yet he was able to accomplish scarcely 
anything. 

He had also to encounter the usual humiliations 
which beset all American envoys for many years 
by reason of the financial embarrassments of the 
States. He lived in a hive of creditors of his na- 
tion, who seemed resolved, if they could not extort 



r2 THOMAS JEFFERSON 

from Mm payment of their demands, at least to 
have their money's worth in tormenting him. He 
was further much irritated at being compelled to 
aid in arranging, on behalf of his countrymen, 
that disgraceful tribute which powerful civilized 
nations were wont to pay to the corsair states of 
Northern Africa. He strenuously urged that war 
would be more effectual, more honorable, and in 
the end not more costly, and he proposed to form 
a league of commercial nations to sustain a com- 
bined naval armament sufficient to overawe those 
pirates in their own waters. But his spirited and 
sensible efforts did not meet with the success which 
they deserved. 

In the early spring of 1786 another unpleasant 
task awaited him. He was obliged to spend a few 
weeks in London, in the hope of aiding Mr. Adams 
in sundry commercial negotiations there pending. 
He was presented, he says, " as usual, to the king 
and queen at their levees, and it was impossible 
for anything to be more ungracious than their no- 
tice of Mr. Adams and myself." Also the Mar- 
quis of Caermarthen, minister of foreign affairs, 
was so vague and evasive as to confirm Mr. Jeffer- 
son in his belief of the English " aversion to have 
anything to do with us." Naturally he achieved 
nothing and went away in no pleasant frame of 
mind, carrying personal reminiscences chiefly of 
coldness and insolence. His contempt and hatred 
towards England, much intensified by this trip, 
and his belief in the bitter hostility of that coiin* 



MINISTER TO FRANCE 73 

try towards the States, hereafter find frequent and 
vigorous expression in his correspondence. 

*' That nation hate us," he wrote, " their ministers 
hate us, and their king more than all other men. . . . 
Our overtures of commercial arrangements have been 
treated with derision. ... I think their hostility to- 
wards us is much more deeply rooted at present than 
during the war." 

"In spite of treaties, England is still our enemy. 
Her hatred is deep-rooted and cordial, and nothing is 
wanting with her but the power to wipe us and the land 
we live in out of existence." 

The English " do not conceive that any circumstance 
will arise which shall render it expedient for them to 
have any political connection with us. They think we 
shall be glad of their commerce on their own terms. 
There is no party in our favor here, either in power or 
out of power. Even the opposition concur with the 
ministry and the nation in this." 

" I think the king, ministers, and nation are more 
bitterly hostile to us at present than at any period of the 
late war." 

" The spirit of hostility to us has always existed in 
the mind of the king, but it has now extended itself 
through the whole mass of the people and the majority 
in the public councils." 

" I had never concealed . . . that I considered the 
British as our natural enemies and as the only nation on 
earth who wished us ill from the bottom of their souls. 
And I am satisfied that, were our continent to be swal- 
lowed up by the ocean, Great Britain wovdd be in a 
bonfire from one side to the other." 



74 THOMAS JEFFERSON 

So excessive was his distrust that he even 
" thought the English capable of administering 
aid to the Algerines." 

He was further profoundly incensed at the bad 
character which persistent abuse by the English 
press was fastening upon his country among Euro- 
peans. " There was," he says, " an enthusiasm 
towards us all over Europe at the moment of the 
peace. The torrent of lies published unremit- 
tingly in every day's London papers first made an 
impression and produced a coolness. The republi- 
cation of these lies in most of the papers of Eu- 
rope . . . carried them home to the belief of every 
mind." The wretched credit of the States abroad 
is, he says, " partly owing to their real deficiencies, 
and partly to the lies propagated by the London 
papers, which are probably paid for by the minis- 
ter to reconcile the people to the loss of us. No 
paper, therefore, comes out without a dose of para- 
graphs against America." 

This state of popular feeling in England filled 
Jefferson with forebodings for the future. " In a 
country where the voice of the people influences 
so much the measures of administration, and where 
it coincides with the private temper of the king, 
there is no pronouncing on future events." "A 
like disposition [of hostility] on our part has been 
rising for some time. . . . Our countrymen are 
eager in their passions and enterprises and not 
disposed to calculate their interests against these." 
Reflecting that the animosities " which seize the 



MINISTER TO FRANCE 75 

whole body of a people, and of a people too who 
dictate their own measures, produce calamities of 
long duration," he said that he should " not won- 
der to see the scenes of ancient Rome and Car- 
thage renewed in our days." But he consoled him- 
self with the thought that " we are young and 
can survive them ; but their rotten machine must 
crush under the trial." 

Jefferson was preeminently a man of peace; 
he instinctively loved it, and he knew that his 
own abilities fitted him only for peaceful scenes. 
About the time of which we are writing he re- 
marked that " the most successful war seldom 
pays for its losses," and throughout life he hated 
everything which did not pay. He therefore de- 
precated a war even with England ; yet he abomi- 
nated her with that peculiar bitterness which is 
seldom cherished by more combative natures, but 
has a strange way of lurking in the obscure depths 
of pacific characters. Allowing for a little excess 
in this feeling, he was in the main perfectly right. 
It is necessary to dip very little beneath the tran- 
quil surface of history to find a vast reservoir of 
evidence in corroboration of his views and justifi- 
cation of his feelings. He read English sentiments 
and purposes with perfect accuracy. But further, 
besides their enmity he plainly saw that perverse 
and obstinate dullness which was so long a marked 
trait in their intercourse with this country. With 
bitter justice he said : " Our enemies (for such they 
are in fact) have for twelve years past followed 



76 THOMAS JEFFERSON 

but one uniform rule, that of doing exactly the 
contrary of what reason points out. Having early 
during our contest observed this in the British 
conduct, I governed myself by it in all prognos- 
tications of their measures ; and I can say with 
truth it never failed me but in the circumstance of 
their making peace with us." He further ventured 
to say that the English " require to be kicked 
into common good manners." Yet he retained 
sufficient fairness to admit the excellence of the 
English system of government, reserving his con- 
demnation chiefly for the behavior of the ministry 
and prominent men. 

From this futile and exasperating English trip 
Jefferson returned to a thoroughly congenial so- 
ciety. If, as these Parisian years glided pleasantly 
by, they seemed fraught with little matter of im- 
portance for the States, and to be chiefly instru- 
mental in promoting Jefferson's personal grati- 
fication, it was only because their true bearing 
was not yet apparent. It was seed-time, and the 
harvest was not to ripen until Jefferson should be- 
come the leader of a powerful party in the United 
States. Then English insolence and French cour- 
tesy began severally to bear their appropriate 
fruits, and the gathering of those fruits was a 
matter of some consequence to all concerned. 

Mr. Jefferson's stay in France extended through 
five years. When he arrived, the monarchy seemed 
firmly established as ever ; before he left, the Bas- 
tille had been destroyed, blood had been freely 



MINISTER TO FRANCE 77 

spilled in the streets, mobs had overawed the 
king" and slain cabinet ministers. No Frenchman 
watched events with more profound interest than 
did Jefferson, and none had better opportunities 
than he enjoyed for observing the gradual advance 
of revolutionary feeling. His own predilections 
and his natural intimacy with Lafayette brought 
him from the outset into the society of the liberal 
or patriotic party. These men, moderate and rea- 
sonable reformers and not at all identical with 
the violent revolutionists of later stages, found in 
him a kindred spirit, long accustomed to think 
the thoughts which they were just beginning to 
think, and to hold the beliefs which they were noW 
acquiring. They made of him at once an instruc- 
tor, counselor, and sympathizing friend. They 
recognized him as one of themselves, a specula- 
tive thinker concerning the rights of mankind, a 
preacher of extreme doctrines of political freedom, 
a deviser of theories of government, a propounder 
of vague but imposing generalizations, a condemner 
of the fetters of practicability, in a word, by the 
slang of that day, a " philosopher ; " and they 
liked him accordingly. Upon his own part, his 
interest in the reformation of their odious royal 
despotism could hardly have been greater had he 
himself been a Frenchman. He went daily to 
Versailles to attend the debates of the National 
Assembly. Lafayette and others sought his sug- 
gestions. The archbishop of Bordeaux, as head 
of a committee of the National Assembly, charged 



78 THOMAS JEFFERSON 

to draft the projet of a constitution, actually in- 
vited him " to attend and assist at their delibera- 
tions." This he wisely declined to do. But later, 
in private conference with one or two personal 
friends, he proposed an important step, — that 
" the king, in a seance royale, should come for- 
ward with a charter of rights in his hand, to be 
signed by himself and by every member" of the 
Assembly ; and he actually sketched the chief 
heads of such a " charter." 

If these acts seem an interference of question- 
able propriety, yet upon the whole it must be ad- 
mitted that he behaved with excellent discretion 
and self-control, though the temptation to mingle 
in affairs was rendered exceptionally great by his 
real interest in them, by the abnormal state of po- 
litical matters, by his friendship with Lafayette 
and others, and by the deference which was shown 
to him personally, indicative of the influence which 
he might exert. Only once did he appear in dan- 
ger of being seriously compromised, and then it 
was through the blunder of another. Lafayette, 
without previously consulting him, arranged that 
six or eight discordant chiefs of different sections 
of the liberal party in the Assembly should dine 
at Jefferson's house, in the hope that they might 
reach an agreement. Jefferson was much annoyed 
at this " inadvertence " on the part of his friend, 
and waited on Count Montmorin the next morning 
with an explanation. The count replied that 

** he already knew everything which had passed, that 



MINISTER TO FRANCE 79 

80 far from taking umbrage at the use made of my house 
on that occasion he earnestly wished I would habitually 
assist at such conferences, being sure I should be useful 
in moderating the warmer spirits and promoting a whole- 
some and practicable reformation only. I told him I 
knew too well the duties I owed to the king, to the na- 
tion, and to my own country, to take any part in councils 
concerning their internal government, and that I should 
persevere with care in the character of a neutral and 
passive spectator, with wishes only, and very sincere 
ones, that those measures might prevail which would be 
for the greatest good of the nation." 

It has been the fashion to say that the feelings 
and ideas gathered by Jeiferson in France consti- 
tuted the predominant influence throughout his 
subsequent political career. In this there is much 
exaggeration, and towards him much injustice. 
His character was more independent. Moreover, 
he was a mature man when he went abroad, and 
had been busied from early youth, alike in the way 
of theory and practice, with the political and social 
problems of government. The originating disposi- 
tion and radical temper of his mind had appeared 
from the outset, and were only confirmed, not 
created, by his foreign exj)erience. Neither was 
his affection for France, nor his antipathy to Eng- 
land, then first implanted. Both sentiments were 
strong before he crossed the Atlantic ; they were 
only encouraged by the pleasures of his long resi- 
dence in the one country, and the convictions borne 
in upon him during his brief visit to the other. 



so THOMAS JEFFERSON 

His character would be ill understood if it were 
supposed that his subsequent political career was 
the exotic growth of French seeds, instead of being 
developed in ordinary course from the native root. 
He would always have been a radical, an extreme 
democrat, a hater of England, a lover of France, a 
sympathizer with the French revolutionists, though 
he had never sailed out of sight of American 
shores. The only effect of his European life was 
to corroborate preexisting opinions, and somewhat 
to intensify sentiments already entertained. Per- 
haps these were naturally so strong that a counter- 
acting influence would have been more wholesome , 
and this might have been experienced had he 
remained to witness the Reign of Terror and the 
ascendency of Robespierre. This, however, was 
not to be. In September, 1789, he sailed for home 
from Havre, upon what he supposed to be a short 
leave of absence granted at his urgent request. 
But events, as will be seen, rendered his stay at 
home permanent. 

Jefferson ought to have been a happy man when 
he set sail on this return trip. Never did an in- 
voluntary exile glorify, in imagination, his lost 
home as Jefferson had been glorifying the States 
for five years past. All the charms of Paris were 
to him as nothing in comparison with the merits of 
his dear native land. "London," he said, "though 
handsomer than Paris, is not so handsome as Phil- 
adelphia ! " He found that, in the way of educa- 
tion, only vice and modern languages were better 



MINISTER TO FRANCE 81 

taught in Europe than at home ; instruction was 
just as good at William and Mary College as at the 
most famous seats of learning abroad ! He begged 
Monroe to come to France, because " it will make 
you adore your own country, its soil, its climate, 
its equality, liberty, laws, people, and manners." 
He predicted that many Europeans would settle in 
America, but " no man now living will ever see 
an instance of an American removing to settle in 
Europe and continuing there." The virtues of his 
fellow citizens he attributes to the fact that they 
have " been separated from their parent stock and 
kept from contamination, either from them or the 
other people of the old world, by the intervention 
of so wide an ocean." " With all the defects of our 
Constitution, . . . the comparison of our govern- 
ments with those of Europe is like a comparison of 
heaven and hell. England, like the earth, may be 
allowed to take the intermediate station." 

To the gaze of such a patriot everything which 
took place in his own country seemed admirable. 
Even Shays's insurrection in Massachusetts, which, 
by the alarm that it spread among all thinking men, 
contributed largely to the adoption of the new 
Constitution, seemed to Jefferson a commendable 
occurrence. Undeniably he talked some very bad 
nonsense about it. 

" The commotions offer nothing threatening ; they are 
a proof that the people have liberty enough, and I could 
not wish them less than they have. If the happiness of 
the mass of the people can be secured at the expense of 



82 THOMAS JEFFERSON 

a little tempest, now and then, or even of a little blood, 
it will be a precious purchase." " To punish these errors 
too severely would be to suppress the only safeguard of 
the public liberty." " A little rebellion now and then is 
a good thing, ... an observation of this truth should 
render honest republican governors so mild in their pun- 
ishment of rebellions as not to discourage them too much. 
It is a medicine necessary for the sound health of govern- 
ment." " Thus I calculate, — an insurrection in one of 
thirteen States in the course of eleven years that they 
have subsisted, amounts to one in any particular State in 
one hundred and forty-three years, say a century and a 
half. This would not be near as many as have happened 
in every other government that has ever existed. So 
that we shall have the difference between a light and a 
heavy government as clear gain." " Can history pro- 
duce an instance of rebellion so honorably conducted ? 
. . . God forbid we should ever be twenty years without 
such a rebellion. . . . What signify a few lives lost in a 
century or two ? The tree of liberty must be refreshed 
from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants. 
It is its natural manure." 

It shakes one's faith in mankind to find a really 
great statesman uttering such folly ! It had not 
even the poor excuse of being caught from the 
French revolutionists ; for the latest of these sen- 
tences was uttered in November, 1787, when Jeffer- 
son was more probably engaged in imparting such 
extravagant notions to the moderate French re- 
formers than in receiving these wild ideas from 
them. In truth, Jefferson was recoiling too far 
from the " conspiracy of kings and nobles," and 



MINISTER TO FRANCE 83 

«fas cast for a time into the ridiculous position of 
advocating a " no government " theory. " The 
basis of our governments," he said, " being the 
opinion of the people, the very first object should 
be to keep that right," — a sound postulate which 
he makes the pedestal for a preposterous super- 
structure ; for he adds : " Were it left to me to de- 
cide whether we should have a government without 
newspapers, or newspapers without a government, 
I should not hesitate a moment to prefer the lat- 
ter," — the newspapers of the latter half of the 
eighteenth century ! " I am convinced," he says, 
" that those societies (as the Indians) which live 
without government enjoy in their general mass 
an infinitely greater degree of happiness than 
those who live under the European governments. 
Among the former public opinion is in the place 
of law, and restraining morals as powerfully as 
laws ever did anywhere." " Societies exist under 
three forms :...!. Without government as 
among our Indians. 2. Under governments 
wherein the will of every one has a just influence. 
... 3. Under governments of force. . . . It is a 
problem not clear in my mind that the first condi- 
tion is not the best." One loses patience with an 
intelligent man talking such stuff. 

Jefferson's experience abroad, in attempting to 
form commercial treaties, had taught him the ne- 
cessity of a closer union of the States for purposes 
of foreign relationships ; but when the lesson of 
Shays's insurrection was even read backwards by 



84 THOMAS JEFFERSON 

him, it is easy to see that he was far from com. 
prehending the domestic necessity for a much 
firmer consolidation. " My general plan," he said, 
" would be to make the States one as to every- 
thing connected with foreign nations, and several as 
to everything purely domestic." Such being his 
opinion, it was inevitable that, when the Constitu- 
tion of the United States was published, he found 
much in it which seemed to him very unsound and 
objectionable. There are in the document, he 
said, " things which stagger all my dispositions to 
subscribe to what such an assembly has proposed," 
and his earliest criticisms were very severe. Fur- 
ther consideration, however, the arguments of " The 
Federalist," and correspondence with Madison and 
Monroe, gradually induced him to modify his 
views. By May, 1788, he was able to say : " I 
look forward to the general adoption of the new 
Constitution with anxiety, as necessary for us 
under our present circumstances." If in many 
particulars he was still imperfectly pleased, he was 
only of the like sentiment with most of the zealous 
advocates of adoption. Probably every promi- 
nent man among the Federalists could, in his own 
opinion, have suggested improvements. Jefferson 
finally took the national charter as its other sup- 
porters did, " contented with the ground which it 
will gain for us, and hoping that a favorable mo- 
ment will come for correcting what is amiss in it." 
His earlier wish was that nine States would adopt 
it, " in order to insure what was good in it, and 



MINISTER TO FRANCE 85 

that the others might, by holding off, produce the 
necessary amendments." But later he declared the 
plan of Massachusetts to be " far preferable," and 
expressed the hope that it would " be followed by 
those who are yet to decide." Finally on Decem- 
ber 4, 1788, he writes : " I have seen with infinite 
pleasure our new Constitution accepted by eleven 
States, not rejected by the twelfth ; and that the 
thirteenth happens to be a State of the least im- 
portance." 

The preceding extracts, which might be multi- 
plied by many more of identical tenor, abundantly 
show Jefferson's real sentiments concerning the 
Constitution, and refute the unfair charge after- 
ward brought against him by his enemies, that he 
was opposed to it. His own characteristic state- 
ment was : " I am not a Federalist, because I never 
submitted the whole system of my opinions to the 
creed of any party of men whatever, in religion, in 
philosophy, in politics, or in anything else where I 
was capable of thinking for myself. Such an ad- 
diction is the last degradation of a free and moral 
agent. If I could not go to heaven but with a 
party, I would not go there at all. Therefore I 
am not of the party of the Federalists. But I am 
much farther from that of the anti-Federalists. I 
approved, from the first moment, of the great mass 
of what is in the new Constitution." He then con- 
tinues at great length to show how his objections 
gradually gave way before argument, until a con- 
fession of faith, too rigid to have been repeated by 



86 THOMAS JEFFERSON 

him, could have been repeated by very few indi. 
viduals In the States. It is probable that the Con- 
stitution was nearer to his ideal upon the one side 
than it was to Hamilton's ideal upon the other. 
The only serious objections, which he retained to 
the end, were the absence of a bill of rights and the 
presence of the reeligibility of the President. The 
former real defect was promptly and wisely cured ; 
the latter has been practically controlled by a wise 
custom which he himself helped to inaugurate. 



CHAPTER Vni 

SECRETARY OF STATE. — DOMESTIC AFFAIRS 

On October 23, 1789, Mr. Jefferson sailed from 
Cowes, and on December 23 he was welcomed by 
his slaves at Monticello. At his departure he had 
supposed that he was returning home for a visit of 
a few months only, and that he should speedily go 
back to watch the progress of the French Revolu- 
tion. He was now so much more interested in this 
movement than in any other matter, that he was 
by no means gratified to find awaiting him, upon 
his arrival, an invitation from President Washing- 
ton to fill the place of secretary of state. He 
replied that he did not prefer the change, but that 
he would be governed by the President's wishes. 
Washington thereupon wrote again in very urgent 
fashion, and Madison made a visit to Monticello 
for the express purpose of exerting his personal 
influence. Beneath such pressure Jefferson reluc- 
tantly abandoned his hope of remaining abroad, 
and accepted the secretaryship, only stipulating for 
a few weeks for setting in order his private affairs. 
It was not until March 21, 1790, that he arrived 
in New York and entered upon the duties of his 
office. 



68 THOMAS JEFFERSON 

In those days the cabinet consisted of only 
four persons. John Jay had been acting tempo- 
rarily as secretary of state, but with the under- 
standing that he should be made chief justice so 
soon as a permanent secretary could be appointed ; 
Hamilton had been made secretary of the trea- 
sury immediately after Washington's inauguration ; 
about the same time Knox had been appointed 
secretary of war, and later Edmund Randolph had 
been made attorney-general. The great brunt of 
the labor in the organization of public affairs had 
fallen and still rested upon Hamilton, who had en- 
countered the vast and complex task with magnifi- 
cent spirit and ability. By the time that Jefferson 
came to share in the business of government, all 
questions concerning the foreign debt and the do- 
mestic national debt had been disposed of by Con- 
gress in accordance with Hamilton's recommenda- 
tions. But there still remained, as a bone of fierce 
contention, the secretary's scheme for the assump- 
tion by the United States of the war debts of the 
individual States ; and concerning this the opposing 
parties had been wrought up to a pitch of exceed- 
ing bitterness and excitement. In committee of 
the whole in the House of Kepresentatives the 
assumption had been carried by thirty-one yeas to 
twenty-six nays ; but when the question came to be 
taken in the House proper the representatives from 
North Carolina had arrived, and aided in turning 
the scale, so that on March 29 the measure was 
Toted down. From the condition of feeling it was 



SECRETARY OF STATE 89 

evident that a serious crisis already menaced the 
young nation. Congress met daily and adjourned 
without transacting any business ; the hostile fac 
tions could not work together upon any subject- 
and, indeed, nobody cared to think or talk of any* 
thing save assumption. Threats of disunion were 
heard on all sides. Hamilton contemplated the 
emergency with profound anxiety, for the Treasury 
Department carried within itself the fate of the 
new government ; and upon his financiering really 
depended the existence of a people. The momen- 
tous struggle called forth all the resources of his 
ingenious and fertile mind. While he kept up a 
steady fight all along the front, he also set himself 
to devise a flank movement, and in this manoeuvre 
he resolved to make use of Mr. Jefferson. 

It happened opportunely that the selection of a 
site for the national capital had given rise to an 
eager sectional division in Congress. The South* 
em States wanted it on the Potomac ; the Middle 
and Eastern States wished it to be farther north. 
The northern party had prevailed by a narrow ma- 
jority. Now it was fortunately the case that the 
parties in the assumption debate had divided by 
the like sectional lines ; the Middle and Eastern 
States were in favor of assumption ; the Southern 
States were opposed to it ; and in this matter the 
South had prevailed, also by a slender majority. 
The opportunity for a bargain was obvious; the 
temptation to it was irresistible ; the justification 
was sufficiently satisfactory. Hamilton accordingly 



90 THOMAS JEFFERSON 

resolved to buy two or three votes for his assump- 
tion scheme at the price of the required number of 
votes for the Potomac site. In this bit of political 
commerce he selected Jefferson as an efficient part- 
ner. So one day, meeting Jefferson in the street, 
Hamilton walked with him and discussed the mat- 
ter. He depicted the national jeopardy in woeful 
colors, and movingly besought Jefferson to use his 
influence with some of his friends and to save the 
Union. Jefferson replied that he was " really a 
stranger to the whole subject," but that the preser- 
vation of the country touched him nearly, and he 
begged Hamilton to dine with him the next day, 
to meet one or two more whom he would invite, 
in the hope that together they might devise some 
acceptable " compromise." The dinner came off •, 
Jefferson afterward wrote that he himself " could 
take no part in [the discussion] but an exhortatory 
one," because he was a " stranger to the circum- 
stances which should govern it." But the bargain 
was then and there struck ; and at that dinner-table 
assumption was bought at the price of a capital on 
the Potomac. The terms of the agreement were 
punctually fulfilled. The requisite number of 
votes were delivered, on both sides, and Hamilton's 
financial policy prevailed without mutilation. 

Soon, however, Jefferson found himself deeply 
repenting his share in this transaction. He began 
to doubt whether assumption was really vtdse and 
right, and he plainly saw that from a personal and 
selfish point of view he had blundered seriously. 



SECRETARY OF STATE 91 

For he had greatly aided the prestige and influence 
of one who soon became his most formidable polit- 
ical opponent, and he had been largely efficient in 
achieving the success of a measure which his party 
was forthwith to single out for especial denuncia- 
tion. When, therefore, he was pushed ere long to 
find explanations of this compromising fellowship 
with Hamilton, he behaved like the fox who gnaws 
off his own leg to escape from the trap : he sacri- 
ficed, by denial, one of the most marked of his 
mental traits, his political astuteness ; he said that 
he had been tricked by Hamilton, and made a dupe 
and tool in a department of business with which 
he was unfamiliar, that he had been " most igno- 
rantly and innocently made to hold the candle " for 
the wicked game of the secretary of the treasury. 
Such a defense seemed a bad advertisement of his 
fitness for political leadership, and was otherwise 
so poor and incredible that it would not have been 
resorted to, could any other have been devised. 
The bargain which had been made was perfectly 
plain and simple, at least in respect of political 
morality, and so far as this went could be ex- 
plained and comprehended in five minutes. As 
for the soundness of the policy of assumption, Jef- 
ferson could have heard little else talked about 
since his arrival at New York. He knew the bit- 
terness of the contest concerning it, and, if he had 
not made up his mind about it, he was rash in 
taking sides so decisively. But even if he had 
been rash, he was not therefore entitled to abuse 



92 THOMAS JEFFERSON" 

Hamilton for setting forth and promoting his own 
views.^ The truth is not, however, buried out of 
sight beneath his excuses and explanation of his 
action. This truth is, that he was asked and that 
he consented to take a part before he compre- 
hended or even suspected the powerful formative 
energies which ran under the surface of Hamilton's 
financial measures, like sinews beneath the skin. 
He was, therefore, willing enough to help forward 
a measure upon which seemed to depend the con- 
tinuance of the Union, and of which the remoter 
bearing and effects lay beyond his vision. A little 
later he appreciated that Hamilton had not only 
been handling the finances with singular technical 
skill, but had also been so shaping all his measures 
that they had constituted so many tonic doses 
administered to the national government, strength- 
ening it, confirming it in the interests of an in flu- 
ential portion of the community, and exercising 
a powerful centralizing influence. When all this 
dawned upon Jefferson's understanding, he was 
filled with horror and indignation at the share he 
had unwittingly taken in promoting principles of 
government which he abominated. Also he was 
seriously irritated at the inconvenient light in which 
he had thus been made to appear before those with 
whom he sought political fellowship and authority. 
Then, his eyes being at last opened, anger against 

1 As evidence that Jefferson understood very well what he was 
about, and had his own wishes in the matter, see his letter to 
Monroe of June 20, 1790, and letter to Gilmer of June 27, 1790. 



SECRETARY OF STATE 93 

Hamilton induced him to assert that Hamilton had 
outwitted him by taking unfair advantage of his 
inexperience. 

Jefferson was no financier. The shrewd good 
sense which he had displayed in managing his own 
business, as a planter, was superseded by an un- 
controllable passion for theorizing when he came 
to grapple with the great and intricate problems 
of national finances. At times he wandered into 
the wildest and most absurd vagaries. Thus, only 
a few months before he took his seat in the cabinet, 
he had been much pleased with a novel idea that 
had struck him concerning " a question of such 
consequences as not only to merit decision, but place 
also among the fundamental principles of every 
government." It is with some astonishment that 
the patient reader follows through several pages of 
guileless argument the development of this grand, 
fundamental, newly-discovered truth, and finally 
learns the confounding doctrine: that no public debt 
can rightfully survive the generation which con- 
tracts it ! The daring and original logician starts 
with the " self-evident " proposition that " the earth 
belongs in usufruct to the living ; that the dead 
have neither powers nor rights over it." But, he 
says, if a debt survives the generation which con- 
tracts it, then the subsequent generation takes " the 
earth " subject to a burden imposed by and for the 
dead. This must needs be wrong, since it is coun- 
ter to a " self-evident " premise. Assuming, he said, 
that men come of age at twenty-one, and that the 



94 THOMAS JEFFERSON 

majority of those who are alive at twenty-one will 
live thirty-four years more, it follows that a genera- 
tion may contract debts to run thirty-four years 
and no longer. This period he afterward reduced 
to nineteen years ; for " a generation consisting of 
all ages, and which legislates by all its members 
above the age of twenty-one years, cannot contract 
for so long a time, because their majority will be 
dead much sooner." It is at once ludicrous, pitiful, 
and alarming to hear such rubbish from an influen- 
tial leader of the people. After listening to it one 
is not surprised to hear that, in criticising the work 
of one of the greatest financiers whom the world 
has ever seen, Jefferson made but a sorry show. 

Nevertheless, being profoundly unconscious of his 
own incapacity in this department of knowledge, 
Jefferson did not refrain from free indulgence in 
such dangerous criticism. He was wont to say 
that Hamilton's financial system was designed to 
serve as a puzzle for excluding popular understand- 
ing and inquiry. In 1802 he wrote to Gallatin 
concerning Hamilton : — 

" In order that he might have the entire government 
of his machine, he determined so to complicate it as that 
neither the President nor Congress should he able to 
understand it or to control him. He succeeded in doing 
this, not only beyond their reach, but so that he himself 
could not unravel it. He gave to the debt in the first 
instance, in funding it, the most artificial and mysterious 
form he could devise. He then moulded up his appro- 
priations of a number of scraps and remnants, many of 



SECRETARY OF STATE 95 

which were nothing at all, and applied them to different 
objects in reversion and remainder, until the whole sys- 
tem was involved in impenetrable fog." 

He actually reiterated this declaration so late as 
1818, long after the perfect practical success of 
that renowned system had constituted its unan- 
swerable vindication. But it is not probable that 
he was disingenuous in his abuse, for certainly 
Hamilton's financiering was from the beginning, 
and ever remained, a "puzzle " utterly insoluble for 
Mr. Jefferson. Nevertheless he persisted in a blind 
hatred and denunciation, eloquent enough while 
he confi,ned himself to generalities, but, so often 
as he turned to more specific fault-finding, mani- 
festing a surprising ignorance of economic prin- 
ciples and a hopeless confusion of thought. Yet a 
distinguishing feature of Hamilton's system was its 
grand, plain simplicity, not only in its broad out- 
lines, but in matters of detail and technique. His 
rei)orts to Congress were lucid to a degree which 
makes them comprehensible to a woman or a child. 
It befell, however, very fortunately for Jefferson, 
that he had not much fighting to do in a field in 
which he was so little at home. By the time that 
the antagonism between him and Hamilton had 
become fairly developed, all the principal features 
of Hamilton's financial scheme, except only the 
national bank, had become complete and adopted 
parts of the governmental machinery. It was not 
necessary, therefore, to encounter them with argu- 
ment, but only to revile them in a broad way. 



&<5 THOMAS JEFFERSON 

It has been said that Washington formed hia 
cabinet with a deliberate purpose of amalgamating 
parties by bringing together, as political comrades, 
the two chief representatives of opposing opinions. 
This erroneous statement has been sustained by 
two other incorrect propositions, namely, (1) that 
Jefferson was opposed to the Constitution which 
Hamilton befriended, a theory already shown to 
be untrue ; (2) that he and Hamilton had re- 
spectively from the beginning established policies 
antagonistic to each other, which is a palpable mis- 
representation. For a while all was doubtful and 
tentative concerning both men and measures in the 
new government, although the outcome now appears 
to have been so strictly in accordance with the 
logic of circumstances, and the native bent and 
qualities of the different individuals, that it is diffi- 
cult not to carry back the later opinions and kuow- 
ledge to a date at which neither coidd have existed. 
It took some time for this logic and these qualities 
to become apparent to the chief actors, who learned 
each other's ways of thinking only by degrees. 
Meanwhile Hamilton and Jefferson met upon a 
friendly footing, and for a time apparently enter- 
tained no suspicion that they would not be able to 
pursue an harmonious policy. Indeed, there hardly 
were at first two parties or two systems of national 
politics in the country. The material for forming 
these lay ready at hand in the natural constitution 
of men's minds, but it still reposed like ore in the 
mine, half unseen and wholly unshaped. There 



SECRETARY OF STATE 97 

were those who always instinctively said Nay to all 
proposals coming from Hamilton ; but they were 
not an organized party, and had no defined policy 
of their own. It was very gradually that what 
deserved to be called a hostile school of political 
thought was developed by the measures of the gov- 
ernment. Only as the Hamiltonian structure grew 
piece by piece did the design of the builder appear 
to be much more comprehensive than had been at 
first understood. Then it was seen that Hamilton, 
besides substituting order for confusion, and sol- 
vency for insolvency, had also been creating a very 
powerful governmental machine ; then men saw 
how deep down in the nation he had succeeded in 
setting the foundations of the government, and 
what extensive powers he had grasped for it by 
construing the Constitution to his purpose. They 
remembered that he theoretically believed in a 
monarchical form, and they saw that he was fast 
making this republican government not less strong 
and centralized than a limited monarchy. Then 
the men of democratic minds became combined 
together through their common alarm ; and as n(* 
man was more thoroughly democratic than Jeffer- 
son, so no man was more profoundly alarmed. We 
have but to recall his talk about the charms of 
newspapers without a government, and about the 
excellence of the Indian form of polity, to conceive 
the horror with which he beheld this rapid trans- 
formation of a federal league into a national unit. 
No sooner did he get a notion of the ruinous coursa 



98 THOMAS JEFFERSON 

by which Hamilton was steering the ship than he 
began to whisper warnings among the passengers, 
to organize a species of mutiny against one who, 
in truth, had no more exclusive right to the helm 
than he himself had. So the period of confidence 
between Hamilton and Jefferson endured only for 
a limited time, and, though they remained personal 
friends for a short while after they had become 
political opponents, yet such accusations and per- 
sonalities as were soon cast against each by the 
friends and followers of the other ere long de- 
stroyed all traces of good feeling, and thereafter 
they distrusted and hated each other, and fought 
and denounced each other bitterly, and believed 
every possible ill of each other during the rest of 
their lives. 

Most unfortunately for his own good fame, Jef- 
ferson allowed himself to be drawn by this feud 
into the preparation of the famous " Anas." His 
friends have hardly dared to undertake a defense 
of those terrible records, and the very manner of 
those apologies which some have ventured to pre- 
sent has been fatal to their efficacy. The editor of 
the congressional edition of Jefferson's works ex- 
cuses the insertion of these post-mortuary slanders 
on the ground of editorial duty, and only reluc- 
tantly suffers himself to become the formal agent of 
their perpetuation. But there is no symptom that 
Jefferson thought that it was unbecoming in him 
to set down all the idle rumors, the slander and 
gossip received at third and fourth hand, the mali- 



SECRETARY OF STATE 99 

cious tales of enemies, aimed at the good fame of 
an adversary who, at least, had never dealt him an 
unfair blow, and to leave this odious collection of 
poisonous scraps to be published not only after the 
death of that adversary, and so late that no sub- 
stantial opportunity of contradictions by contem- 
porary evidence remained, but also after his own 
death, so that he could not be called upon to sus- 
tain his statements, or punished for failure to do 
so. It must be confessed that the compilation of 
these unfortunate and most disreputable fragments 
is among the meanest acts recorded by history, and 
that it has more impaired Jefferson's good name 
than all the other mistakes of his life and all the 
assaults of his enemies. Had he been able to resist 
the temptation to seek such an ignoble revenge on 
a dead foe, he would have lived in history as a man 
of a far more honorable spirit than can now be 
attributed to him. 



CHAPTER IX 

SECRETARY OF STATE. — GROWTH OF DISSENSIONS 

Jefferson was the most astute and successful 
politician wlio has yet flourished in a country sin- 
gularly and unfortunately prolific of this not very 
estimable race. But he was very much more than 
a politician, and he added something even to the 
essential traits of a statesman ; he was a profound 
thinker concerning the theory of government and 
the principles of social and political organization. 
In full accord with the new spirit of his era, he was 
a radical even among radicals, and a democrat of 
the extreme class. He could hardly bring himself 
to declare that the people should govern, because 
he had a lurking notion that there should be no 
government at all. " The rights of man," the 
favorite slang phrase of the day, signified to his 
mind an almost entire absence of governmental 
control. His milder opponents called him a vision- 
ary, and the hopeless impracticability of many of 
his theories almost justified the term. His more 
bitter assailants stigmatized him as dishonest ; and 
there certainly was an element of disingenuousness 
in his character, a covert habit in his dealings, 
and a carelessness concerning the truth in small 



SECRETARY OF STATE 101 

'•natters. But his belief in the doctrines of human 
freedom was a pure and deep conviction, an inerad- 
icable portion of his nature. His faith in the 
laxest form of democracy, scarcely removed from 
anarchy, stood to him in the place of a religion ; 
he preached it with a fervor, intensity, and con« 
stancy worthy of Mahomet or Wesley. It was an 
inevitable consequence of this vehement conviction 
that he regarded supporters of contrary principles 
with distrust and abhorrence as wicked men, con- 
scious promulgators of falsehood in the most im- 
portant of all human concerns. Evil reports con- 
cerning them seemed so intrinsically probable as 
always to command his ready belief ; and there is 
no evidence that he ever refused to credit any mali- 
cious tale repeated against them, no matter how 
tainted in its origin or progTcss. He was observant 
and quick-witted, and soon appreciated the skill 
with which Hamilton was rapidly constructing a 
powerful centralized government. At Hamilton's 
back he beheld a disciplined body of able and am- 
bitious men, some filling places of public trust and 
power, others absorbing wealth, all in one shape 
or another acquiring an extensive and irresistible 
influence in the body politic and social. Jefferson 
gazed upon this portentous growth with dread and 
repulsion. He saw enough to induce him fearfully 
to anticipate the destruction of human freedom in 
the United States, and he susjjected much more 
than he saw. As he peered into the mystery of 
the Federalist policy, the vision of monarchy took 



102 THOMAS JEFFERSON 

shape before his eyes and long remained with him, 
an ever present and vivid terror. Henceforth in 
every measure of the secretary of the treasury he 
discerned an artful move in the monarchical game ; 
at every social gathering of Federalists he seemed 
to hear the whispered plots of " Monocrats." If 
gentlemen, flushed with wine after dinner, made 
statements far outrunning their sober beliefs, their 
extravagant words were borne in exaggerated form 
to Jefferson's ears, were magnified by his excited 
mind, and were stored away by him as conclusive 
evidence of monarchical projects. The idea became 
a monomania with him. He wrote it to his friends; 
he jotted it down on the scraps of paper which 
afterward were gathered together for the " Anas ; " 
he mournfully bore the gossip to Washington, and 
was not to be deterred from repeating it, though 
the President told him that he was talking non- 
sense. 

Long afterward, looking back upon this period, 
Jefferson declared that these dreadful monarchical 
tendencies had been visible to him from the earliest 
days of his arrival in New York. 

" The President," he says, " received me cordially, 
and my colleagues and the whole circle of principal citi- 
zens apparently with welcome. The courtesies of both 
political parties, given me as a stranger newly arrived 
among them, placed me at once in their familiar society. 
But I cannot describe the wonder and mortification with 
which the table conversations filled me. Politics were 
the chief topic, and a preference of kingly over republi- 



SECRETARY OF STATE 103 

can government was evidently the favorite sentimentc 
An apostate I could not be, nor yet a hypocrite ; and 
I found myself, for the most part, the only advocate on 
the republican side of the question, unless among the 
guests there chanced to be some member of that party 
from the legislative houses." 

These sentences linger in that debatable land, 
somewhere in which exaggeration passes into false- 
hood. Evidently, in looking back down the long 
vista of nearly thirty years, Jefferson's vision was 
indistinct. If he had really been plunged into 
such a chilling bath of monarchy at once upon his 
arrival in New York, he would have cried out 
promptly at the sudden shock, and left contempo- 
raneous evidence of it; whereas, in fact, some 
time elapsed before he began to give perceptible 
symptoms of distress at the unsound political faith 
about him. Monarchy was doubtless spoken of in 
a manner offensive to his democratic ears. The 
Constitution was a compromise wholly satisfac- 
tory to no one ; the government was undeniably 
an experiment ; and its probable efficiency was 
often discussed as an open question. Sentiments 
of loyalty, pride, and affection had not had time to 
strike deep root. But Jefferson made a mistake 
in construing an anxious doubt as equivalent to ac- 
tive disaffection ; and was guilty of a gross, though 
certainly an unintentional, injustice in charging 
the advocates of a strong system with a design of 
changing the form of government. He was driven 
beyond his reason by foolish terrors when he 



104 THOMAS JEFFERSON 

spoke of Hamilton as the enemy of the Constitu- 
tion. Every one has long since agreed that the 
Constitution had no other friend nearly so efficient 
as Hamilton. No man living had better means of 
knowledge concerning these matters than Wash- 
ington, and no man was intellectually more capable 
of forming a correct judgment. Yet even Jeffer- 
son could not in his " Anas " set down the lan- 
guage, which the President held to him, in shape 
more corroborative of his views than this : " That 
with respect to the existing causes of uneasiness, 
he [Washington] thought there were suspicions 
against a particular party [Hamilton] which had 
been carried a great deal too far. There might be 
desires, but he did not believe there were designs, to 
change the form of government into a monarchy ; 
that there might be a few who wished it in the 
higher walks of life, particularly in the great cities, 
but that the main body of the people in the East- 
ern States were as steadily for republicanism as in 
the Southern." Making ever so slight allowance 
for refraction by reason of the transmission of 
these words through the Jeffersonian medium, we 
see the most inadequate basis for the vast pile of 
Jefferson's suspicion. 

But in dealing with Jefferson's conduct, it is not 
the truth which must be sought so much as Jeffer- 
son's idea of the truth. That he had an honest 
belief in the monarchical conspiracy, and in the 
treasonable designs of the Hamiltonian clique, ap- 
pears certain. Indeed, if he began with a faith 



SECRETAKY OF STATE 105 

like a grain of mustard seed, he must soon have 
caused it to expand into a vigorous tree, so lib- 
erally did he water it with the ceaseless iteration 
and reiteration of his own assertions. Frequent 
repetition of a statement assumes in time the as- 
pect of evidence ; and what he said so often he 
probably at last came to believe. Unquestionably 
he induced others to believe it. For years his talk 
was of " monarchists " and " monocrats," till the 
reader of his letters and memoirs regards these 
people like the sea-serpent, feels that it would be 
incongruous if so familiar a name did not repre- 
sent some real existence, and in a way permits the 
fiction to be asserted into a reality. There was an 
earnestness, or, as he himself would have said, a 
venom, in Jefferson's language, when he dealt with 
this topic, indicating a force and depth of feeling 
hardly to be adequately conveyed by description, 
and which is so utterly inappropriate for a fable 
that it seems sufficiently to imply truth. 

If the purpose of the monarchical party was ab- 
horrent to Jefferson, so their means appeared con- 
sonantly base. The decision to pay in full not 
only the principal of the domestic debt, but also 
the arrears of interest, followed by the assumption 
of the state indebtedness, furnished, during a year 
and a half, opportunities for speculation which 
were availed of with an ardor that has not been 
surpassed in Wall Street in our own generation. 
Naturally those who gathered in the securities at 
low prices were the men of capital, sagacity, and 



106 THOMAS JEFFERSON 

enterprise, who lived in cities, more especially resi- 
dents in New York and Philadelphia, who could 
best forecast congressional action. Naturally, too, 
those who had most faith in Hamilton plunged 
most boldly into the venture. Jefferson, there- 
fore, and others who had taken fright at the mo- 
narchical scarecrow, were scandalized and alarmed 
as they saw the supporters of Hamiltonian mea- 
sures reaping a great harvest of wealth, and conse- 
quently of political power and social consideration. 
They began to charge the secretary of the treasury 
with winning adherents by giving opportunities of 
growing suddenly and enormously rich. That great 
financial system, which in a few brief months had 
raised the United States from a condition of piti- 
ful and ignoble bankruptcy to the status of a sol- 
vent power in excellent credit, wore, to Jefferson's 
suspicious eyes, the aspect of a great, complex, and 
terribly efficient machine for building up in the 
state the most dangerous kind of aristocratical 
party. 

His dissatisfaction was further nourished by 
other measures ; the military establishment dis- 
gusted him, because he abhorred every manifes- 
tation of governmental power or control. The 
excise seemed odious, because he thought that aD 
branches of internal taxation ought to be left to 
the States. But most of all the proposition for a 
national bank appeared to bristle with objection- 
able traits. By the time that Hamilton was pre- 
pared to push this project, the political operation 



SECRETARY OF STATE 107 

of his financial policy was fully appreciated, and 
indeed greatly exaggerated, by Jefferson : nor was 
't longer possible for the treasury party to coerce 
support by declaring the existence of the Union to 
be at stake. This bank act involved first a ques- 
tion of law and then one of expediency. In the 
former aspect it presented much difficulty, and 
Washington asked for written opinions from his 
cabinet officers. Hamilton supported it in an ar- 
gument which is one of the most famous of our 
state papers. Jefferson took the other side and 
argued the legal point, which alone he understood, 
with much force and ability. After great hesita- 
tion Washington decided to sign the bill. He was 
always reluctant to interfere with his secretaries 
in their respective departments : furthermore, if he 
was making a constitutional error it could be cor- 
rected by the Supreme Court. In due time that tri- 
l>unal sustained the constitutionality of the bank, 
Chief Justice Marshall delivering an opinion in 
which he added nothing to the reasoning of Hamil- 
ton. But though the views of Jefferson were thus 
finally rejected, it must be acknowledged that the 
question, regarded as one purely of law, might just 
as well or better have been determined the other 
way. The issue was, whether a rigid or a liberal 
construction should be given to the general clauses 
of the Constitution ; and a bench of strict con- 
structionists would have encountered no insuper- 
able legal obstacles in the way of sustaining Jef- 
ferson. 



108 THOMAS JEFFEKSON 

But if the legal and constitutional aspects and 
the political bearing of this measure were easily 
within Jefferson's comprehension, its relations to 
the finances and business of the country were far 
beyond his understanding. He proclaimed tho 
most ignorant theories, and talked the most absurCi 
twaddle about its mischievous introduction of pa- 
per money, and the consequent banishment of gold 
and silver from circulation. When the subscrip- 
tion books were opened, he saw with melancholy 
forebodings the capitalists rushing forward in such 
eager competition that much more than the capital 
stock was quickly subscribed. He wrote gloomily 
to Monroe : " Thus it is that we shaU be paying 
thirteen per cent, per annum for eight millions of 
paper money, instead of having that circulation of 
gold and silver for nothing. . . . For the paper 
emitted from the bank, seven per cent, profits will 
be received by the subscribers for it as bank 
paper, . . . and six per cent, in the public paper 
of which it is the representative. Nor is there 
any reason to believe that either the six millions 
of paper or the two millions of specie deposited 
will not be suffered to be withdrawn, and the 
paper thrown into circulation. The cash deposited 
by strangers for safekeeping wiU probably suffice 
for cash demands." He was probably ignorant 
that such special deposits could not lawfully be 
used by the bank at all ; and this is only a sample 
of his general lack of knowledge in aU matters of 
business. 



SECRETARY OF STATE 109 

There Is no doubt that the bank, whether consti- 
tntional or not, was of immense advantage to the 
country ; but Jefferson could see in it only a pro* 
lific machine for turning out more corrupt support- 
ers of that dangerous and designing monarchist, 
the secretary of the treasury. Henceforth hiS 
abuse of the " treasury party," as he called it, re- 
doubled; nor did he ever modify this opinion to 
the end of his life. In his introduction to the 
" Anas," in 1818, he recorded that " Hamilton was 
not only a monarchist, but for a monarchy bot- 
tomed on corruption ; " and he said that the bank 
was designed as an " engine of influence more per- 
manent '' for corrupting the legislature than the 
funding system and assumption could be. Accord- 
ingly " members of both houses," he said, " were 
constantly kept as directors who, on every question 
interesting to that institution or to the views of the 
federal head, voted at the will of that head ; and, 
together with the stockholding members, could al- 
ways make the Federal vote that of the majority." 
On March 3, 1793, discussing Giles's famous reso- 
lutions of censure on Hamilton, he notes " the com- 
position of the House, 1, of bank directors ; 2, 
holders of bank stock ; 3, stock jobbers ; 4, blind 
devotees ; 5, ignorant persons who did not compre- 
hend them ; 6, lazy and good-humored persons, who 
comprehended and acknowledged them, yet were 
too lazy to examine, or unwilling to pronounce 
censure ; the persons who knew these characters 
foresaw that, the three first descriptions making 



110 THOMAS JEFFERSON 

one third of the House, the three latter would 
make one half of the residue." It was thus that 
he endeavored to account for the ignominious fail- 
ure of the anti-Federalist attempt to establish defi* 
nite charges of dishonesty against Hamilton ; and 
admitted his own sympathy with the blunder o£ 
that unfortunate and disastrous measure. 

Another thing which Jefferson beheld with hor- 
ror was the national debt. Besides the speculation 
which soon ended in widespread ruin, he conceived 
that he detected a purpose on Hamilton's part to 
use this debt permanently, in some ingenious and 
covert way, as a perpetual resource for corrupting 
the legislature. The fact that a portion of it had 
been made "deferred" for a few years, convinced 
him that Hamilton intended never to let the people 
pay what they owed and get clear of obligation. 
Everybody, he said, stood in dread of the " chickens 
of the treasury " and their " many contrivances." 
" As the doctrine is that a public debt is a public 
blessing, so they think a perpetual one is a perpet- 
ual blessing, and therefore wish to make it so large 
that we can never pay it off." He could not be 
induced to renounce this suspicion, even when a 
scheme was brought forward by Hamilton to pro- 
mote payment within a short period. No evidence 
ever could persuade him that Hamilton was politi- 
cally honest, and no lapse of time could allay his 
prejudices. 

Washington, meanwhile, watched with profound 
concern the development of a spirit of antagonism 



SECRETARY OF STATE IH 

and distrust between his chief secretaries, and the 
coincident organization of hostile political parties. 
He himself, elevated to office by the whole nation, 
was resolved to hold aloof from any party connec- 
tions. But he could not close his ears to the cease- 
less din of accusations, arguments, and complaints 
which the opposing leaders insisted upon making 
him hear. On May 23, 1792, Jefferson wrote to the 
President a long letter " disburthening " himself 
concerning a " subject of inquietude " almost coex- 
tensive with the whole national affairs. He intro- 
duced his strictures by saying "it has been urged;" 
but soon he warmed with his work, threw off the 
impersonality of this phrase, and openly delivered 
his own sentiments. A public debt, he said, too 
great to be paid before it would inevitably be in- 
creased by new circumstances, had been " artifi- 
cially created by adding together the whole amount 
of the debtor and creditor sides of accounts ; " the 
finances had been managed not only extravagantly 
but so as to create " a corrupt squadron, deciding 
the voice of the legislature," and manifesting "a 
disposition to get rid of the limitations imposed by 
the Constitution ; " " that the ultimate object of all 
this is to prepare the way for a change from the 
present republican form of government to that of a 
monarchy." He was positive that " the corruption 
of the legislature " would prove " the instrument 
far producing in future a king, lords, and com- 
mons, or whatever else those who direct it may 
choose." " The owers of the debt are in the souths 



112 THOMAS JEFFERSON 

ern and the holders of it in the northern division,'* 
so that a sectional distribution exists fraught with 
imminent danger of dissolution of the Union. He 
is so convinced that nothing save Washington's 
continuance in office can avert this peril, that he 
lays aside his objections to a second terra, and im- 
plores the President not to think of retiring. 

These same apprehensions he reiterated when- 
ever occasion offered. On July 10, 1792, he urged 
upon the President " that the national debt was 
unnecessarily increased, and that it had furnished 
the means of corrupting both branches of the legis- 
lature ; that . . . there was a considerable squad- 
ron in both, whose votes were devoted to the paper 
and stock-jobbing interests, . . . that on examin- 
ing the votes of these men they would be found 
uniformly for every treasury measure, and that as 
most of these measures had been carried by small 
majorities, they were carried by these very votes." 

Two or three months earlier he had told Wash- 
ington that all existing discontents were to be at- 
tributed to the Treasury Department : 

" that a system had there been contrived for deluging 
the States with paper money instead of gold and silver, 
for withdrawing our citizens from the pursuits of com- 
merce, manufactures, building, and other branches of 
useful industry, to occupy themselves and their capitals 
in a species of gambling, destructive of morality, and 
which had introduced its poison into the government 
itself. That it was a fact . . . that particular mem- 
bers of the legislature, while those laws were on the 



SECRETARY OF STATE 113 

carpet, had feathered their nests with paper, had then 
voted for the laws ; . • . that they had now brought for- 
ward a proposition far beyond any one ever yet advanced, 
and to which the eyes of many wei'e turned as the de- 
cision which was to let us know whether we live under a 
limited or an unlimited government." 

This reference bore upon that part of Hamil- 
ton's famous report on manufactures "which, un- 
der color of giving bounties for the encouragement 
of particular manufactures," was designed to grasp 
for Congress control of all matters "which they 
should deem for the public welfare and which 
[were] susceptible of the application of money," 
as certainly few matters were not. On October 1, 
1792, he says that he told Washington : 

" That though the people were sound, there were a 
numerous sect who had monarchy in contemplation ; 
that the secretary of the treasury was one of these. 
That I had heard him say that this Constitution was a 
shilly-shally thing of mere mUk and water, which could 
not last and was only good as a step to something better. 
That when we reflected that he had endeavored in the 
convention to make an English Constitution of it, and 
when, faihng in that, we saw all his measures tending 
to bring it to the same thing, it was natural for us to 
be jealous ; and particularly when we saw that these 
measures had established corruption in the legislature, 
where there was a squadron devoted to the nod of the 
Treasury, doing whatever he had directed and ready to 
do what he should direct." 

On February 7, 1793, he again said that the ill* 



U4 THOMAS JEFFERSON 

feeling at the South was due to a belief in the 
existence " of a corrupt squadron of voters in Con- 
gress, at the command of the Treasury," suf- 
ciently numerous to make the laws the reverse of 
what they would have been had only honest votes 
been cast. 

It was seldom that Jefferson was at the trouble 
to aim a shaft directly at any one save Hamilton ; 
but once, May 8, 1791, he took an insidious side- 
shot at John Adams. " I am afraid," he wrote to 
Washington, " the indiscretion of a printer has 
committed me with my friend, Mr. Adams, for 
whom, as one of the most honest and disinterested 
men alive, I have a cordial esteem, increased by 
long habits of concurrence in opinion in the days 
of his republicanism ; and even since his apostasy 
to hereditary monarchy and nobility, though we 
differ, we differ as friends should do." 

What he said to Washington he said and wrote 
also to others. So early as February 4, 1791, he 
wrote to Colonel Mason that "it cannot be de- 
nied that we have among us a sect who believe it 
[the English Constitution] to contain whatever is 
perfect in human institutions ; that the members 
of this sect have, many of them, names and offices 
which stand high in the estimation of our country, 
men." July 29, 1791, writing to Thomas Paine, 
he speaks of a " sect here, high in name, but small 
in numbers," who had been indulging a false hope 
that the people were undergoing conversion " to the 
doctrine of kings, lords, and commons ; " but he 



SECRETARY OF STATE US 

politely adds that this delusion has been " checked 
at least," and the people " confirmed in their good 
old faith," by the recent publication of Paine's 
" Rights of Man." To Lafayette he writes, June 
16, 1792 : " A sect has shown itself among us who 
declare they espoused our new Constitution, not as 
a good and sufficient thing in itself, but only as a 
step to an English Constitution, the only thing 
good and sufficient in itself in their eye. . . . Too 
many of these stock-jobbers and king-jobbers have 
come into our legislature ; or, rather, too many of 
our legislature have become stock-jobbers and king- 
jobbers." 

During this prolonged stress of anxiety and 
alarm, Jefferson, who was unquestionably a sincere 
patriot and honest in his opinions, sought encour- 
agement in such evidence of republican sentiment 
as he could discover in the mass of the people. 
His faith and reliance were always in numbers, 
and in the vast bulk of the population, rather than 
in the politicians and upper classes of society, who 
appeared more prominently upon the surface. Ac- 
cordingly he never missed an opportunity of drop- 
ping his plummet into the mighty depths beneath ; 
and if he discovered those profound currents to be 
in accord with his own tendencies, as he always 
expected to do, and generally did, he refreshed his 
wearied spirit with the instinctive anticipation that 
these would control the course of the country at no 
distant time. Herein lay his deep wisdom ; he 
enjoyed a political vision penetrating deeper down 



116 THOMAS JEFFERSON 

into the inevitable movement of popular govern, 
ment, and farther forward into the future trend of 
free institutions, than was possessed by any other 
man in public life in his day. He had sound con- 
fidence that the multitude, led by a single able 
strategist like himself, was sure in time to outvote 
and overpower the much smaller body of educated 
men who understood and admired the statesman- 
ship of Hamilton. 

But concerning this confidence of Jefferson in 
the people, which must be so constantly borne in 
mind in order to comprehend his character, some 
observations should be made. Not merely did he 
appreciate and foresee their invincible power in 
politics, but he had perfect faith in the desirability 
of the exercise of that power ; he anticipated that 
in this exercise the masses would always show wis- 
dom and discrimination, that they would select the 
most able and most honest men in the country to 
preside over the national affairs, men like himself 
and Mr. Madison. It was a delightful ideal of a 
body politic which he had before his eyes, wherein 
a huge volume of human poverty and ignorance 
would be always pleased to recognize and set over 
itself a few exalted individuals of lofty character 
and distinguished intelligence. In his day it was 
still a question how poverty and ignorance would 
behave in politics ; and it was his firm expectation 
that they would behave with modesty and self-ab- 
negation. It was a kindly belief, but indicative of 
the enthusiast. He deserves the praise of thinking 



SECRETARY OF STATE 117 

better of his fellow men than they deserve. If he 
could see what sort of men have in fact satisfied 
the people since his doctrines have become devel- 
oped, he would probably greatly modify them. 
His notion of a democratic polity had as its main 
principle that the multitude should select the best 
men, and, after that expectation had been once dis- 
proved by fair and sufficient experience, he would 
almost undoubtedly have abandoned his doctrine 
in disappointment and indignation. But though 
this is matter of speculation, and may be correct 
or not, one thing at least is certain, that democracy 
has not worked as Jefferson expected it to work, 
and that the two generations or more, which have 
passed away since his day, have brought forth re- 
sults which would have astonished and shocked 
him, if presented as the outgrowth of his teachings. 
It was the custom of that period for men hold- 
ing high official positions to contribute anonymous 
political communications to the newspapers, — a 
custom which, among some advantages, possessed 
the serious disadvantage that out of it arose much 
suspicion, ill-blood, and personal resentment. The 
misunderstanding with John Adams, already re- 
ferred to, had its origin in an episode of this kind, 
wherein Jefferson made an absurd, though natural, 
blunder. Adams's " Discourses of Davila " appear 
to-day as stupid reading as one could discover in a 
large library; but, in the times of which we are 
writing, several persons read them through ; and 
readers of democratic proclivities were even more 



118 THOMAS JEFFERSON 

incensed than bored by them. The doctrines 
therein proclaimed were mercilessly castigated in 
Paine's " Rights of Man," of which it so happened 
that " the only copy " in the United States was 
sent to Jefferson, with the request that, after read- 
ing it, he would " send it to a Mr. J. B. Smith, who 
had asked it for his brother to reprint it." " Be- 
ing an utter stranger to J. B. Smith," says Jeffer- 
son, " I wrote a note to explain to him why I (a 
stranger to him) sent him a pamphlet ; . . . and 
to take off a little of the dryness of the note, I 
wrote that I was glad to find it was to be reprinted ; 
that something would at length be publicly said 
against the political heresies which had lately 
sprung up among us," etc. To Jefferson's " great 
astonishment," the printer " prefixed " this note to 
the volume. At once the Federalist writers settled 
like a hive of hornets upon the unfortunate sponsor 
of " Tom " Paine, and a peculiarly vigorous sting 
was sent in by one Publicola. Jefferson hastened 
to write two letters of explanation to John Adams, 
deprecating any quarrel, and speaking with espe- 
cial animosity and contempt of the mischief -making 
Publicola. Little did he think with what a freight 
he had laden his peaceful missives, for Publicola 
was none other than John Adams's son, John 
Quincy Adams, whose family were very proud of 
this early filial exploit. Such were some of the 
perils of this darkling habit of anonymous news- 
paper writing. Isaac had actually been made a 
peace-offering to Abraham. 



SECRETAKY OF STATE 119 

But difficulties much more grave than such com- 
ical errors were often promoted by the newspapers 
of the day. Shortly after Jefferson was appointed 
secretary of state, he received from Madison a let- 
ter commending for a clerkship one Philip Fre- 
neau, a democratic scribbler of verses rather better 
than most Americans could write in those days. 
Jefferson had then no vacancy ; but a little later 
he found a " clerkship for foreign languages," 
carrying only the petty salary of " two hundred 
and fifty dollars a year," but giving " so little to 
do as not to interefere with any other calling " 
which the clerk might choose to carry on. In a 
very kind note Jefferson conferred this modest 
position upon Freneau, and in so doing wrote the 
first stanza in a long Iliad of troubles. For it so 
happened that the " other calling " which the ill- 
paid translating clerk selected for eking out his 
subsistence was the editorship of a newspaper ; 
and it further so happened that Mr. Freneau had 
a zealous faith in the chief of his own department, 
and a correspondingly intense aversion towards the 
rival secretary of the treasury. Hitherto Fenno's 
" Gazette " had represented " the Treasury " with- 
out an equal opponent ; but the new " National 
Gazette " now sustained the Department of State 
with not inferior ardor, with an appalling courage 
in the use of abusive language, and with terrible 
enterprise in preferring outrageous accusations. 
For Freneau had not only extreme convictions, but 
a trenchant pen. Hamilton and his friends were 



120 THOMAS JEFFERSON 

soon wincing beneath his attacks ; but they pre. 
ferred to pass by the writer as a being too insignif- 
icant for their wrath, and to denounce his alleged 
patron and protector, the secretary of state, in per 
son. He it was, they said, who insidiously fui 
nished material and information to the disaffected 
and scurrilous sheet which was issued, as they chose 
to declare, almost actually from his department. 
He was responsible for its malicious temper, for its 
reckless aspersions of his honorable colleagues, 
and even of the President himself. Jefferson an- 
grily repelled these assertions, declaring that he 
had nothing whatsoever to do, directly or indi- 
rectly, with the management of the paper ; but at 
the same time he had the courage not to conceal 
that he thought the " Gazette " to be in the main 
sound in its doctrines, and doing good work. He 
neither dismissed nor rebuked Freneau. It is rea- 
sonable to suppose that a rebuke would have been 
effectual ; but his obligation to give it is by no 
means clear. His asseveration that he did not 
interfere, even indirectly, in the conduct of the 
sheet, derives credit from the probability that, if 
he had interfered, he would have been sufficiently 
wise and politic to discourage the personal attacks 
upon Washington, which he must have seen to be 
blunders. But in a broad and very forcible way 
the paper advocated his views ; and in return he 
generally spoke well of it, and was interested in its 
success. It is difficult to say that he was positively 
wrong in this. Possibly he occasionally " inspired ** 



SECRETARY OF STATE 121 

it, to use the ingenious, indefinite slang of our day ; 
but it was going too far when he was treated as a 
responsible member of the editorial staff. Whether 
it was becoming in him to retain in his department 
a writer whose daily business was to defame the 
policy and character of a colleague in the cabinet, 
is a part of the general question, soon to be dis- 
cussed, of the relationship which those colleagues 
were bound, under the peculiar circumstances then 
existing, to maintain towards each other and their 
chief. 

At last, in August, 1792, Hamilton was pro- 
voked into coming down to the lists and himself 
taking a hand in the fray. He descended like a 
giant among the pygmies, and startled all by his 
sudden apparition in the guise of " An American." 
Though he thus wore his visor down, every one at 
once knew the blows of that terrible hand. In his 
first article he bitterly assailed Jefferson for re- 
taining his office and at the same time continuing 
his connection with Freneau. Further, he charged 
Jefferson with disloyalty to the Constitution and 
the administration. Jefferson was absent when 
this powerful diatribe appeared ; but Preneau 
printed an affidavit, saying that he had had no 
negotiations with Jefferson concerning the estab- 
lishment of his paper, and that Jefferson had never 
controlled it in the least, or written or dictated a 
line for it. Hamilton, in replication, contemptu- 
ously declined to seek any other antagonist than 
Jefferson himself. His arguments were powerful, 



122 THOMAS JEFFERSON 

and a great wrath inspired his pen. But defenders 
of the secretary of state were not lacking ; and 
Hamilton, being once in the field, had perforce to 
lay about him among a throng of small assailants, 
for whose destruction he cared little, while Jeffer- 
son himself, with exasperating caution, declined to 
be drawn into the furious arena. 

Washington beheld this sudden melee with 
extreme annoyance, and made a noble, pathetic, 
hopeless effort to close a chasm which the forces of 
nature herself had opened. He wrote to each sec- 
retary a short letter of personal appeal, breathing 
a beautiful spirit of concord and patriotism. From 
each he received a noteworthy and characteristic 
response, courteous and considerate towards him- 
self, but showing plainly the impossibility of har- 
mony between two representatives so adverse in 
intellectual constitution. Hamilton briefly justi- 
fied what he had done, and said that he must now 
go through with this conflict, but that he would 
try not to become so involved again. Jefferson 
sent an elaborate argument, defending himself and 
his party, and arraigning the policy and the char- 
acter of the Federalists. The letter is such an 
ample exposition of the anti-Federalist tenets, such 
a forcible apologia of the writer, that it ought 
not to be mutilated by excerpts ; yet it is much too 
long for reproduction here. 

Jefferson began by saying that when he " em- 
barked in the government, it was with a determi- 
nation to intermeddle not at all with the legislature, 



SECRETARY OF STATE 123 

and as little as possible with my co-departments.'* 
For the most part he had scrupulously observed 
this wise resolution, though he bitterly recalled his 
share in the assumption measure. Into this " I 
was duped by the secretary of the treasury, and 
made a tool for forwarding his schemes, not then 
sufficiently understood by me ; and of all the errors 
of my political life this has occasioned me the 
deepest regret." He acknowledged that he had 
" utterly, in his private conversations, disapproved 
of the system of the secretary of the treasury," 
which "flowed from principles adverse to liberty, 
and was calculated to undermine and demolish the 
republic, by creating an influence of his depart- 
ment over the members of the legislature." He 
then developed fully his favorite theory of a " cor- 
rupt squadron " in Congress, whose votes could 
always turn the scale, who were under the com- 
mand of the secretary of the treasury, and were by 
him used " for the purpose of subverting, step by 
step, the principles of the Constitution, which he 
had so often declared to be a thing of nothing 
which must be changed." He complained that his 
own abstinence from interference with the Treasury 
Department had not been reciprocated by Hamil- 
ton, who had repeatedly intermeddled in the for- 
eign affairs, and always in the way of friendship 
to England and hostility to France, a policy " ex- 
actly the reverse " of that of Jefferson, and, as 
Jefferson believed, also of that of Washington. 
He then passed to the attacks made by Hamilton, 



124 THOMAS JEFFERSON 

as " An American," in Fenno's " Gazette." For 
the charge of disloyalty to the Constitution, he de- 
nied that he had been more an opponent of the 
Constitution than Hamilton had been, and showed 
that his objections to it had been vindicated by the 
subsequent adoption of amendments almost wholly 
coextensive with his criticism ; whereas Hamilton 
had been dissatisfied because " it wanted a king 
and house of lords." Hamilton, he said, wished 
the national debt " never to be paid, but always to 
be a thing wherewith to corrupt and manage the 
legislature," whereas he himself would like to see 
it " paid to-morrow." Still harping on corruption, 
he said : " I have never inquired what number of 
sons, relatives, and friends of senators, representa- 
tives, printers, or other useful partisans, Colonel 
Hamilton has provided for among the hundred 
clerks of his department, the thousand excisemen 
at his nod, and spread over the Union ; nor could 
ever have imagined that the man who has the 
shuffling of millions backwards and forwards from 
paper into money, and money into paper, from 
Europe to America, and America to Europe ; the 
dealing out of treasury secrets among his friends 
in what time and measure he pleases ; and who 
never slips an occasion of making friends with his 
means, — that such an one, I say, would have 
brought forward a charge against me for having 
appointed the poet Freneau a translating clerk to 
my office, with a salary of two hundred and fifty 
dollars a year." He tells the story of the starting 



SECRETARY OF STATE 123 

of Freneau's paper in a way to exculpate himself ; 
and, concerning its subsequent conduct, says : " 1 
can protest, in the presence of Heaven, that I 
never did, by myself or any other, say a syllable, 
nor attempt any kind of influence. I can further 
protest, in the same awful Presence, that I nevei 
did, by myself or any other, directly or indirectly, 
write, dictate, or procure any one sentence or sen- 
timent to be inserted in his or any other gazette 
to which my name was not affixed, or that of my 
office." Pie concluded : " When I came into this 
office it was with a resolution to retire from it as 
soon as I could with decency. It pretty early ap- 
peared to me that the proper moment would be 
the first of those epochs at which the Constitution 
seems to have contemplated a periodical change or 
renewal of the public servants. ... I look to that 
period with the longing of a wave-worn mariner 
who has at length the land in view, and shall count 
the days and hours which still lie between me and 
it." But, he says, though he has a " thorough dis- 
regard for the honors and emoluments of office," 
he has a great value " for the esteem of his coun- 
trymen ; and, conscious of having merited it," he 
" will not suffer his retirement to be clouded by 
the slanders of a man whose history, from the 
moment at which history can stoop to notice him, 
is a tissue of machinations against the liberty of 
the country which has not only received and given 
him bread, but heaped its honors on his head." 
For himself, he declares his belief, with obvious 



126 THOMAS JEFFERSON 

innuendo, that the people do not regard him as 
" an enemy of the republic, nor an intriguer 
against it, nor a waster of its revenue, nor prosti- 
fcutor of it to the purposes of corruption." 

The letter is a characteristic and very remarkable 
document ; it deserves to have become as famous 
as a great speech, so plausible was it in defensive 
argument, so imposing in denunciation, so bitter in 
personal invective, so skiUful and yet earnest in its 
interweaving of truth with gross misrepresenta- 
tions, so spirited at once and pathetic in its protes- 
tations of rectitude. It contained some falsehoods, 
yet it was honestly written. It did not indvxce 
Washington to abjure Hamilton ; but it proved to 
him that each side was too much in the right to 
yield, and that each had such an honest confidence 
in the wickedness of the other that reconciliation 
was hopeless ; matters had gone far beyond that 
stage when Jefferson had the audacity to talk of 
the moment when history could first stoop to no- 
tice his distinguished rival, and could actually twit 
Hamilton with having had bread " given " to him 
by the country ! 

Federalist historians have always lost their tem- 
pers over this most aggravating epistle, and are 
accustomed to compare the replies of the two secre- 
taries vastly to Jefferson's discredit. Hamilton, 
they say, did not malign his opponent in private 
correspondence with their common chief. But the 
fact that Hamilton did not see fit to write an elab- 
orate, argumentative, offensive and defensive lefr 



SECRETARY OF STATE 127 

ter does not establish the fact that Jefferson ought 
not to have done so. Neither, when writing, knew 
what course the other would pursue in this respect, 
so that no unfair advantage was taken. It may be 
well suspected that the real cause of the Federalist 
vexation is, that Hamilton left no corrective anti- 
dote to Jefferson's powerful document. In the 
long struggle between Hamilton and Jefferson, the 
Hamiltonians always intimated that Jefferson was 
a darkling underhand antagonist, who would cov- 
ertly traduce and vilify, and employ underlings to 
take the responsibilities and encoimter the perils 
which he himself should have assumed. Thus they 
depict him as a contemptible and cowardly charac- 
ter; but, as it seems, with a great exaggeration 
of the truth, if not altogether without any truth. 
Hamilton was by his nature a fighter, ardent, defi- 
ant, self-confident, always ready to change blows 
with one or with a host, half winning victory by 
his sanguine anticipation of it. Jefferson on the 
other hand was as non-combatant as a Quaker, 
seldom and reluctantly entering a debate either in 
words or in print. But his detractors were of opin- 
ion that if he would not make a political speech, 
he ought not to talk politics with his friends after 
dinner ; if he would not write political articles for 
the newspapers, he ought never to put an expres- 
sion of political opinion into his correspondence. 
They laid down for him an absurd rule which was 
followed by no man in those days, or indeed in any 
days. It does not appear that Jefferson ever con? 



J3& THOMAS JEFFERSON 

cealed his sentiments, or that he often conciliated 
\ay man in public and defamed him in private ; 
observing these principles, he had a perfect right 
to declare his beliefs about public men and mea- 
sures, in conversation or in letter-writing, to any 
person whomsoever. 

So long as the department of national finances, 
the liquidation of the national debt and provision 
for its payment, the establishment of the bank and 
of the mint, the arrangement of the tariff, and the 
organization of taxes constituted the chief business 
of the government, it was impossible for Jefferson 
to encounter Hamilton with any hope of success. 
For even if Hamilton's financiering had been as 
unsovmd as in fact it was sound, Jefferson was too 
much of a novice in such matters to be able to 
expose any errors. In other matters, also, Ham- 
ilton enjoyed great influence and prestige induced 
by his admirable management of his preeminently 
important department. It was not without rea- 
son that Jefferson complained that his colleague 
encroached on his functions. Hamilton had the 
mind of a ruler, and could not help placing him- 
self substantially at the head of the nation, with 
a policy on every subject and an unconquerable 
habit of making that policy felt. It was not sur- 
prising that Jefferson became irritated and discour- 
aged ; for it was evident that he had no reasonable 
hope of holding his own unless the struggle could 
be transferred to some new field better suited to 
his abilities. Fortunately for him, precisely this 



SECRETARY OF STATE 129 

movement was already going rapidly forward. Just 
about the time when the opponents of the secre- 
tar}^ of the treasury had become consolidated and 
trained by the severe lessons of repeated disasters, 
and when Jefferson's position as their leader had 
become universally admitted, questions of domestic 
policy began to be superseded by the foreign rela- 
tions of the United States. The new problems 
soon took such shape that Jefferson and his follow- 
ers regained courage. They had become an organ- 
ized party and had assumed a good party name ; 
known at first only in a negative way as anti- 
Federalists, they had seized upon the monarchical 
heresy as affording them a better designation, and 
now signified their loyalty to the Constitution by 
calling themselves Republicans. Their doctrine, 
however, was properly democratic; and very soon 
a portion of their party described itself as the 
Democratic-Republicans, and then of this double 
phrase the less appropriate half was lopped off and 
the name of " Democrats " has ever since been per* 
manently retained. 



CHAPTER X 

SECRETARY OF STATE. — FOREIGN AFFAIRS 

It was the wild gales of the French Revolution, 
whirling with hardly diminished fury across the 
Atlantic, which at last filled the swelling sails of 
the Democrats. The story of the political excite- 
ment caused in the United States by that momen- 
tous upheaval is a tale so much more than twice 
told, that in this smaU volume it may properly be 
treated with a brevity disproportioned to its great 
importance. In its earlier stages the movement 
was watched with intense and unanimous approba- 
tion by all persons in this country. But as events 
went on this harmony vanished ; men of conserva- 
tive temper and orderly instincts began to look 
distrustfully upon anarchy, bloodshed, and that 
miscalled equalization which was really a turning 
upside down. Hamilton and the Federalists in- 
clined to repudiate a sister republic of such doubt- 
ful aspect, and to consider French republicanism 
not much more akin to American republicanism 
than the faithless wife in a French novel is like 
the puritan matron of New England. Jefferson, 
on the other hand, remained steadfast in his adhe- 
sion to the cause of the people, even the worst and 



SECRETARY OF STATE 131 

lowest people, in a land which he loved scarcely 
less ardently than his own. In his letters from 
France he had vigorously expressed his hearty ab- 
horrence of the universal and hideous wretchedness 
begotten of the monarchical system. It was now 
impossible for him to be appalled by the most de- 
structive storms which promised to clear the guilt* 
laden atmosphere. With him felt the great mass 
of the American people, who maintained a constant, 
good-will towards the revolutionists, even through 
the massacres of September, and applauded in 
turn Lafayette and Danton, the Girondins who 
overthrew the old monarchy, and the Jacobins who 
overthrew the Girondins. 

This extravagant ardor was early raised to the 
frenzy point by the French declaration of war 
against England, which country was still pro- 
foundly hated by nine tenths of the inhabitants of 
the United States. With mingled alarm and dis- 
gust Hamilton and his party saw this mighty wave 
of passion sweeping across the land, nor were they 
reassured at beholding prominent on the top of 
this resistless surge the secretary of state, sustained 
in triumph by the vast force of popular numbers. 
Jefferson, on the other hand, was naturally weU 
content ; he always understood the dynamics of 
politics, and now while Hamilton marshaled the 
intelligence and wealth of the country into an army 
of political followers, unequaled in the quality of 
its material by any party which has ever existed in 
the country, Jefferson gazed with instinctive con* 



132 THOMAS JEFFERSON 

jBdence over the sea of ignorant but countless faces 
upturned towards himself. He knew that with 
dull numbers at his back he could in time out- 
match the educated but too thin ranks of federal' 
ism. He was quite right. In a much blinder way, 
because he was intellectually immeasurably below 
Jefferson, but with the same sure instinct, Andrew 
Jackson afterward repeated the triumphs of Jeffer- 
son by the aid of the same classes of the commu- 
nity. So now at last, after having faithfully en- 
dured through the disconsolate period of domestic 
politics, the Republican leader seemed in a fair 
way to gain the uj^per hand when foreign politics 
usurped the attention of every one. Had it only 
been a measured Gallic craze instead of absolute 
madness that ruled the hour, he might not have 
been obliged even to abide the interval of John 
Adams's incumbency, but might have been the 
second president of the United States. 

On April 4, 1793, news arrived in the United 
States that France had proclaimed war against 
England. Five days later Genet, the new French 
minister, landed at Charleston. An anxious and 
stormy period was opened for the administration 
by these two events. The duty, which was also 
the honest wish, of the government to maintain a 
strict neutrality was of unusual difficulty for many 
reasons. (1.) There were entangling treaty obli- 
gations towards France, which bound the United 
States to guarantee her in the maintenance of her 
West Indian islands in any defensive war ; and 



SECRETARY OF STATE 133 

nice questions were : whether the war declared by 
France should be considered, as she claimed, defen- 
sive ; also, whether treaties entered into with the 
royal government were binding towards its suc- 
cessor. (2.) Both combatants soon manifested a 
resolution to have no neutrals ; and each, com- 
mitting outrageous infractions of neutral rights, 
treated any nation not taking part with it as being 
against it. (3.) Genet cherished and carried out, 
in the most unscrupulous and energetic way, the 
deliberate purpose of embroiling the United States 
with Great Britain. (4.) Very few persons in the 
United States really had the neutral temper ; Ham- 
ilton led an English party, Jefferson led a French 
party, and the passions which, in those strange 
times, set all Europe aflame, blazed with equal fury 
in the United States. 

A cabinet meeting decided, as was inevitable, 
that a proclamation substantially of neutrality 
should be issued by the President. Jefferson suc- 
ceeded in bringing about that the word " neutral- 
ity " should not appear in it, so that the document 
might not be avowedly, and in terms, what it was 
in fact. He thought it better to hold back the 
formal annunciation of neutrality, as a " thing 
worth something to the powers at war, that they 
would bid for it, and we might reasonably ask a 
price, the broadest privileges of neutral nations." 
His policy, possibly open to some criticism in point 
of principle, was imperfectly adopted ; and the 
paper, as it was finally issued, did not half please 



134 THOMAS JEFFERSON 

him. To his chagrin, he had not been permitted to 
draft it, though it fell naturally within his depart 
ment, the more neutral temper of Attorney-General 
Handolph being deemed better fitted for the task. 
In cabinet divisions Knox always gave his vote to 
Hamilton ; Randolph so often gave his to Jeffer- 
son as to provoke that secretary extremely by his 
unwillingness always to do so. He seemed so near 
to the character of a thorough-going partisan, that 
he was more hated for not being entirely so than 
thanked for the partial allegiance which he actu- 
ally rendered. Jefferson said : " He always con- 
trives to agree in principle with me, but in conclu- 
sion with the other ; " and again : " The fact is, 
that he has generally given his principles to the 
one party, and his practice to the other, the oyster 
to one, the shell to the other. Unfortunately the 
shell was generally the lot of his friends, the 
French and Republicans, and the oyster of their 
antagonists." Hamilton thought much worse than 
this of Randolph. But the truth is that the at- 
torney-general was a clear-headed, dispassionate 
adviser, of an excellent shrewdness in matters of 
international law, and, as in the present instance, 
much more often right than either of the extrem- 
ists between whom he stood. The dissatisfied sec- 
retary of state, however, wrote in disgust to Madi- 
son : " I dare say you will hare judged from the 
pusillanimity of the proclamation from whose pen 
it came. A fear lest any affection should be dis- 
covered is distinguishable enough. This base feai 



SECRETARY OF STATE 133 

will produce the very evil they wish to avoid. For 
our constituents, seeing that the government does 
not express their mind, perhaps rather leans the 
other way, are coming forward to express it them- 
selves." 

This prophecy was true enough. Before Genet 
left Charleston he had dispatched privateers and 
issued commissions to officers ; and the very vessel 
in which he arrived was taking prizes in American 
waters before he had been presented to the Presi- 
dent. Yet, in spite of these strange doings, his 
slow progress northward was made through exult- 
ing and triumphant crowds, who set no bounds to 
their French ecstasies. He was received at a civic 
banquet in Philadelphia at which the guests sang 
the Marseillaise, passed around the red liberty cap, 
and hailed each other as " citizen." Jefferson, 
though wisely refraining from attendance at these 
ceremonies, watched them with perfect sympathy, 
and with sanguine and swelling indignation against 
Hamilton and the British party. Henceforth to 
the abusive epithets of *' monarchists " and " mon- 
ocrats " he added those of " Anglomaniacs " and 
" Anglomen," as conveying at least an equal mea- 
sure of reproach. He described to Monroe with 
pleasure, and without a word of reprobation, the 
boisterous throngs which hailed the French Am- 
buscade, when she brought in as a prize The 
Grange, captured in flagrant defiance of interna- 
tional law actually inside the capes of Delaware. 
** I -jeish we may be able," he said, " to repress the 



136 THOMAS JEFFERSON 

spirit of the people within the limits of a fair 
neutrality. In the mean time Hamilton is panic- 
strud? if we refuse our breech to every kick which 
England may choose to give it. He is for pro- 
claiming at once the most abject principles, such 
as would invite and merit habitual insults ; and, 
indeed, every inch of ground must be fought in 
our councils to desperation, in order to hold up 
even a sneaking neutrality ; for our votes are gen- 
erally two and a half against one and a half," — - 
another slap at Randolph's even-mindedness. He 
adds with evident satisfaction that immense bank- 
ruptcies have taken place in England, " the last 
advices made them amount to eleven millions ster- 
ling and still going on," By like remarks the an- 
tipathy which he entertained for the enemies of 
France is constantly made to appear. December 
15, 1792, he writes triumphantly : " We have just 
received the glorious news of the Prussian army 
being obliged to retreat, and hope it will be fol- 
lowed by some proper catastrophe on them. This 
news has given wry faces to our monocrats here, 
but sincere joy to the great body of our citizens. 
It arrived only in the afternoon of yesterday, and 
the bells were rung, and some illuminations took 
place in the evening." June 28, 1793, he cheer- 
fully anticipates that the English bankruptcies 
will " proceed to the length of an universal crash 
of their paper." England, he says, "is emitting 
assignats also, that is to say, exchequer bills . . . 
not founded on land as the French assignats are, 



SECRETARY OF STATE 137 

but on pins, thread, buckles, hops, and whatever 
else you will pawn in the exchequer of double the 
estimated value. But we all know that five mil- 
lions of such stuff, forced for sale on the market 
of London where there will be neither cash nor 
credit, will not pay storage. This paper must rest 
then ultimately on the credit of the nation, as the 
rest of their public paper does, and will sink with 
that." 

On the other hand, no acts of the French 
shocked Jefferson's sensibilities or weakened his 
faith. December 19, 1792, he notes with satis- 
faction that his party are "taking to themselves 
the name of Jacobins, which, two months ago, was 
fixed upon them by way of stigma." A few days 
later he writes, concerning the massacres com- 
mitted by that infamous French Club, that the 
" struggle " was " necessary," though in it " many 
guilty persons fell without the forms of trial, 
and with them some innocent. These I deplore 
as much as anybody, and shall deplore some of 
them to the day of my death. But I deplore 
them as I should have done had they fallen in 
battle. It was necessary to use the arm of the 
people, — a machine not quite so blind as balls 
and bombs, but blind to a certain degree. . . . 
My own affections have been deeply wounded by 
some of the martyrs to this cause ; but rather than 
it should have failed, I would have seen half the 
earth desolated ; were there but an Adam and 
Eve left in every country, and left free, it would 



138 THOMAS JEFFERSON 

be better than as it now is ; " with much more of 
like tenor. 

Yet, amid all this gratification, he was obliged, 
with unwilling hand, to write to the French minis- 
ter that The Grange had been unlawfully captured 
and must be returned ; also he had to check many- 
other enterprises of that enthusiast, and to demand 
much reparation. Still to his credit it must be 
said, that, however distasteful these duties were, 
he performed them all fairly enough. On the other 
hand, it is true that he could not bring himself to 
express any positive indignation at one of the most 
lawless and insulting acts ever committed towards 
a neutral nation ; and in the many letters which 
he was obliged to write to Genet concerning the 
equipment, dispatch, and subsequent conduct of 
the Franco - American privateers, he invariably 
used language as colorless as if he had been indit- 
ing a treatise on international law. 

When Genet presented his letters of credence, 
Jefferson wrote to Madison : " It is impossible for 
anything to be more affectionate, more magnani- 
mous, than the purport of his mission. . . . He 
offers everything and asks nothing." But the 
laggard Virginian post could hardly have brought 
this letter to Madison's hands before even its 
writer would have had to reverse the last-quoted 
sentence. For, in truth, Genet very promptly 
made it apparent that he came to offer nothing 
and to grasp everything ; and that his mission, 
instead of being one of unalloyed affection and 



SECRETARY OF STATE 139 

magnanimity, was really to bring all the resources 
of the American people to the aid of France, and 
to transmute the neutral ports of the United States 
into bases of naval operations against England. 
He had a trunk full not only of blank letters of 
marque for privateers to be unlawfully equipped 
in our ports, but even blank commissions, naval 
and military, for American citizens who should re- 
cruit men to take part in the war. Nay, he even 
dared to set up French admiralty tribunals in this 
country, actually conferring on the French consuls 
the power to try and condemn such prizes as the 
French privateers should capture and bring in. 
Jefferson was obliged to inform him that these 
doings were all wrong and utterly intolerable. It 
was a disagreeable duty, but if the secretary wrote 
his letters dispassionately, he at least wrote them 
plainly and manfully, and contented himself with 
advancing on the French side in the cabinet such 
arguments upon other issues as opportunity made 
possible from time to time. For example, a most 
urgent request was preferred by the needy revo- 
lutionary government of France that the United 
States would pay, in anticipation of maturity, the 
indebtedness incurred to France during the late 
war for American independence. In October, 
1792, Jefferson wrote to Gouverneur Morris, then 
minister to France, that payment must be tempo- 
rarily suspended, " since there is no person author- 
ized to receive it and give us an unobjectionable 
acquittal." But on June 6, 1793, the republic 



140 THOMAS JEFFERSON 

being then established, he advised Washington: 
*' I think it very material myself to keep alive the 
friendly sentiments of that country as far as can 
be done, without risking war or double payment. 
If the installments falling due this year can be ad- 
vanced, without incurring those dangers, I should 
be for doing it." 

For a brief period now Jefferson felt sanguine. 
He declared cheerfully that his sentiments were 
"really those of ninety-nine in a hundred of our 
citizens ; " that the prospects of the Anglican party 
" have certainly not brightened ; " that, except for 
that " little party," which has sought a " stepping- 
stone to monarchy," " this country is entirely re- 
publican, friends to the Constitution," etc. Yet 
even amid these few weeks of triumph and hope 
the indomitable temper of the hard-fighting secre- 
tary of the treasury harassed Jefferson with daily 
vexations. May 13, 1793, he complains bitterly 
that Hamilton is encroaching on his department, 
actually proposing to instruct the collectors of cus- 
toms to watch for infractions of neutrality by 
French vessels, and to report them secretly to him 
(Hamilton). To deliver the country from a " mere 
English neutrality," he is obliged to rely on the fact 
" that the penchant of the President is not that 
way, and, above all, the ardent spirit of our con- 
stituents." 

But the largest cloud which darkened the pro- 
spect was blown from a quarter to which Jefferson 
had been looking only for floods of glorious sun- 



SECRETARY OF STATE 141 

light. From the hour when Genet first set foot 
in the country, that restless emissary of discord 
allowed scarcely a day to glide by without a fresh 
indiscretion or a new breach of law. The ener- 
getic friendliness of the secretary of state rapidly 
changed to anxiety, and soon anxiety became anger. 
His letters to Genet, at first so significantly dis- 
passionate, came soon to express genuine indigna- 
tion and rebuke. For Jefferson could not quite 
bring his pacific nature to the point of wishing 
to find his country committed to actual war, and 
he appreciated with regret that Genet was aiming 
at that end. Further, with his unerring political 
sagacity, Jefferson saw plainly that Genet was so 
recklessly contemning the laws and independence 
of this country, that an Anglican reaction must 
inevitably soon set in. He wrote to Monroe that 
Genet's " conduct is indefensible by the most furi- 
ous Jacobin." When at last the blind arrogance 
of the excited Frenchman led him to insult Wash- 
ington with the threat that he himself, foreigner 
as he was, and bound by diplomatic courtesies, 
would publicly appeal from the President to the 
people, actually saying that he would only respect 
the political opinions of the President till the 
representatives should have confirmed or rejected 
them, Jefferson's wrath at this fatal blundering 
could no longer be restrained. He denounced with 
asperity the unfortunate fanatic whose boundless 
folly was turning back the republican party in 
its rapid march towards triumph. He admitted 



142 THOMAS JEFFERSON 

that Genet's recall must be demanded, and indeed 
heartily longed to see him depart ; he only begged 
that the dismissal might not be personally insulting 
in form. He wrote a letter to Morris, at Paris, 
reviewing Genet's behavior, from the landing at 
Charleston, in language that ought to have been 
gratifying even to the " Anglomen." " If our citi- 
zens," he concluded, " have not already been shed- 
ding each other's blood, it is not owing to the 
moderation of Mr. Genet." On the other hand, 
it should be said that Genet afterward spoke very 
severely of Jefferson, as one who had privately 
incited and encouraged him, and afterward publicly 
abandoned him. Probably Jefferson's objections 
lay not so much to the political morality as to 
the ill-advised lack of tact which distinguished 
the envoy's doings. Certainly his indignation was 
strictly limited to the individual offender, and 
did not in the least affect his French sympathies. 
Writing to Madison, September 1, 1793, he spoke 
of " the friendly nation " and " the hostile one," 
meaning respectively France and England. He 
was even less neutral than ever before. 

Throughout the harassing alternations of hope, 
irritation, and disappointment which filled up this 
period of Genet's mission, Jefferson's conduct as a 
statesman was upon the whole sound and praise- 
worthy. He was bent upon going as far in aid of 
France as was possible without falling into war 
with England ; but that danger line he was honestly 
resolved not to cross. In the cabinet meetings, 



SECRETARY OF STATE 143 

when Hamilton tossed arguments into the British 
scale, he tossed counterbalancing arguments into 
the French scale. The result was a set of neutral- 
ity rules which have served as precedents for the 
action of civilized nations ever since, and of which 
a large proportion were asserted and justified in 
his official letters. But his consummate political 
tact is more interesting to the student of his char- 
acter. This was shown most prominently by the 
way in which he first led the French movement, 
and then managed to stand aside for a brief period, 
when it was no longer possible to remain in front 
without losing his prestige and compromising his 
right to resume his leading position at an appro- 
priate moment. Excited as his frame of mind was 
at this time, still he was too shrewd to make a 
blunder in the political game. People may dispute 
whether he was on the right side or the wrong, but 
every one must concede his extraordinary personal 
astuteness. He saw a considerable section of his 
party — the leading and conspicuous section — jus- 
tifying nearly all Genet's lawless and foolish acts, 
running wild in democratic clubs and fraterni- 
zations, wearing liberty caps, and aping revolu- 
tionary slang. To eyes less sagacious than his, 
these extremists seemed to constitute the van of 
the party. But Jefferson knew more correctly the 
character of such a body and the destiny of its 
movement. He believed that they were not leaders 
who were going to be followed and in time over- 
taken by the nation ; and he surely knew that they 



144 THOMAS JEFFERSON 

were striking a pace with which the people could 
not keep up, and at which they themselves would 
inevitably topple over. But while he recognized 
these facts, he did not proclaim them ; nor did he 
make a futile effort to check the headlong rush. 
He had no notion of being run over by his own 
troops, or of making himself unpopular by display- 
ing an untimely sagacity. Though he regretted 
to see a disaster precipitated, he well knew that 
its mischief would not exceed a temporary delay. 
When the disaster came, his precaution prevented 
it from involving him. As its effect passed over, 
the great mass of his party, remembering that he 
had not lost his head, trusted him more implicitly 
than ever ; while the reckless members were obliged 
to respect his superior shrewdness, and felt grateful 
to him for having spared them public rebukes. He 
had pursued his usual and moderate course ; he 
had shunned the easy mistake of cherishing dissen- 
sions in his party and dividing it into wings ; he 
had made no enemies ; and especially he had shown 
that rare power of accurately appreciating the true, 
safe, and permanent volume of a popular movement 
which distinguishes him above all the statesmen of 
his generation. 

But in spite of the strength of the French party 
among the people at large, and in spite of his own 
prudence, Jefferson's official position in the cabinet 
remained very unpleasant. A man of his temper 
could find little comfort in unceasing antagonism 
with such a hard-hitting, untiring combatant as 



SECRETARY OF STATE 145 

Hamilton. His occasional victories, far too few 
to satisfy him, were conquered by such incessant 
and desperate conflict as was most wearing and 
odious to him. From such a life he longed to es- 
cape, and few men have sought so earnestly to get 
into office as he sought to get out of it. So early 
as March 18, 1792, he writes to Short of an inten- 
tion, which he describes as having been already 
expressed, to retire at the end of Washington's first 
term. September 9, 1792, in the famous anti-Ham- 
ilton letter to Washington, he repeats the remark, 
saying : " I look to that period with the longing of 
a wave-worn mariner, who has at length the land 
in view, and shall count the days and hours which 
still lie between me and it." He spoke more hon- 
estly than officials often do who hold such language, 
and it was with real reluctance that he consented 
to remain beyond this established bound. He was 
resolved, however, to make the delay as short as 
possible, and on July 31, 1793, he wrote to Wash- 
ington that " the close of the present quarter seems 
to be a convenient period." But Washington's 
importunity almost took away his liberty of action, 
and absolutely compelled him to stay till the end 
of the year. Then at last he escaped, and set out 
for Monticello with the joy of one freed from 
prison. 

Of course nothing which Jefferson could do at 
this juncture could escape censure. He was even 
blamed now for getting out of office as he had long 
been blamed for remaining in it. The same people 



146 THOMAS JEFFERSON 

who had been stigmatizing him as the chief of an 
opposition within the administration, obstinately 
retaining governmental office for the express pur- 
pose of thwarting the administration policy, now 
said that he ought not to have resigned until Ham- 
ilton also should find it convenient to resign. They 
declared that Washington was embarrassed by the 
necessity for rebuilding his cabinet piecemeal ; that 
Hamilton still had some matters in his department 
to be completed, and Jefferson should have stayed 
till these were finished ; that then the two rivals 
could properly go out together. But both charges, 
that of improperly remaining in office and that of 
ungenerously leaving it, were alike wholly unjust. 
Washington, while fully cognizant of the condition 
of affairs in his cabinet, had exerted all the pres- 
sure which he decently could to retain Jefferson ; 
and apart from this consideration, the existence of 
internal dissensions in the cabinet could not put 
Jefferson under any obligation to resign which did 
not rest equally upon Hamilton ; for it was a fair 
struggle between the two. Nor was it better than 
ridiculous to expect Jefferson to withhold his own 
resignation for an indefinite period out of complai- 
sance for the convenience of his chief personal and 
political enemy. How did he know that Hamilton 
would resign at all? He was not in Hamilton's 
confidence, and did not trust him, nor did he deem 
it desirable that Hamilton should remain in office. 
It was absurd to expect him to promote such re- 
maining. If his own resignation put a pressure on 



SECRETARY OF STATE 147 

Hamilton also to resign, it seemed to Lim so much 
the better. In a word, Jefferson's behavior was 
thoroughly proper, and the two charges brought 
against him by his accusers were so inconsistent 
with each other as to be interchangeably destruc- 
tive. 



CHAPTER XI 

IN EETEEAT 

rj , At houae on his plantations Jefferson was su- 
premely happy. " The principles," he said, " on 
which I calculated the value of life are entirely in 
favor of my present course. I return to farming 
with an ardor which I scarcely knew in my youth, 
and which has got the better entirely of my love of 
study." He puts off answering his letters, " farmer- 
like, till a rainy day." He does not " take a single 
newspaper, nor read one a month," and he finds 
himself " infinitely the happier for it." He in- 
dulges himself " on one political topic only, that is, 
in declaring to my countrymen the shameless cor- 
ruption of a portion of the representatives to the 
first and second Congresses, and their implicit de- 
votion to the Treasury." 

But even without newspapers the farmer man- 
aged to keep his knowledge and his interest fresh 
in all matters of foreign and domestic politics. He 
saw with regret his " countrymen groaning under 
the insults of Great Britain." He hoped that the 
triumphs of the French armies would " kindle the 
wrath of the people of Europe against those who 
have dared to embroil them in such wickedness, 



IN RETREAT 149 

and would bring at length kings, nobles, and 
priests to the scaffolds which they have been so 
long deluging with human blood. I am still warm 
whenever I think of these scoundrels, though I do 
it as seldom as I can, preferring infinitely to con- 
template the tranquil growth of my lucerne and 
potatoes." He hopes that " some means will turn 
up of reconciling our faith and honor with peace " 
with England ; and he is " in love " with the " pro- 
position of cutting off all communication with the 
nation which has conducted itself so atrociously." 
When the Non-Importation Bill was lost in the 
Senate, he testily wrote that the senatorial " body 
was intended as a check on the will of the repre- 
sentatives when too hasty. They are not only that, 
but completely so on that of the people also ; and, 
in my opinion, are heaping coals of fire, not only 
on their persons, but on their body as a branch of 
the legislature." 

He had left behind him a famous report on com- 
merce which was bitterly fought over in Congress, 
Madison and Giles backing it against the united 
force of the Federalists and the mercantile interest. 
It sought to encourage trade with France, and to 
curtail the established business relations with Eng- 
land. Jefferson's theory was that business should 
not be controlled by sentiment ; but he firmly be- 
lieved that the true commercial interests of the 
country could be better aided by a French than by 
an English commerce. His arguments were very 
plausible, but did not suffice to induce our mer* 



150 THOMAS JEFFERSON 

chants to undergo the labor and risk of deserting 
familiar channels in search of new ones. The 
resolutions based on the report only served as the 
field for a long and obstinate battle between the 
Gallic and the Anglican factions. 

Jefferson was greatly vexed at the "denuncia- 
tion " of those democratic societies which had been 
recently instituted here in imitation of the Jacobin 
Club, and declared this persecution to be " one of 
th.e extraordinary acts of boldness of which we 
have seen so many from the faction of monocrats." 
When Washington, reluctantly yielding to strong 
pressure, included in his message an unfavorable 
reference to these organizations, Jefferson thought 
it "wonderful, indeed, that the President should 
have permitted himself to be the organ of such an 
attack on the freedom of discussion, the freedom 
of writing, printing, and publishing." He was 
watching Washington's course with profound anx- 
iety and some jealous distrust. For he thought 
that the President was losing his judicial impar- 
tiality, and changing from the head of the nation 
to the head of a party. He lamented this pro- 
spect, and seriously feared that the time might 
come when Washington's " honesty and his politi- 
cal errors " might give the people a second occasion 
to exclaim "curse on his virtues! they have un- 
done his country." 

The " whiskey insurrection " in Western Penn- 
sylvania very nearly commanded actual sympathy 
from Jefferson. He writes to Madison, Decerabet 



IN RETREAT 151 

28, 1794, that he is unable to see that the trans- 
actions "have been anything more than riotous. 
There was, indeed, a meeting to consult about a 
separation. But to consult on a question does not 
amount to a determination of that question in the 
affirmative, still less to the acting on such a deter- 
mination." " But," he continues, " we shall see, I 
suppose, what the court lawyers, and courtly judges 
and would-be ambassadors will make of it. The 
excise law is an infernal one. The first error was 
to admit it by the Constitution ; the second, to act 
on that admission ; the third and last will be, to 
make it the instrument of dismembering the Union, 
and setting us all afloat to determine what part of 
it we will adhere to." 

It was inevitable that Jay's treaty should seem 
to Jefferson absolutely odious ; and in the storm 
which it launched across the country, and which 
threatened for a time to bring even Washington's 
administration into grave jeopardy, Jefferson was 
among the most irreconcilable of the malcontents. 
At first a " slight notice " of it was sufficient " to 
decide [his] mind against it." As the discussion 
grew heated, and the result seemed so important 
and so doubtful that Hamilton, thinly disguising 
himself as " CamiUus," came down into the lists, 
Jefferson became greatly agitated. He beheld with 
dismay the " only middling performances " of the 
writers on his side, and implored Madison to take 
part. " Hamilton," he said, " is really a colossus 
to the anti-republican party ; without numbers b« 



152 THOMAS JEFFERSON 

is an host within himself. They have got thenk 
selves into a defile, where they might be finished ; 
but too much security will give time to his talents 
and indefatigableness to extricate them. ... In 
truth, when he comes forward, there is nobody but 
yourself can meet him. . . . For God's sake take 
up your pen, and give a fundamental reply to Cur- 
tius and Camillus." True to his reluctance to be- 
come personally involved in such conflicts, he seems 
never to have contemplated the possibility of taking 
his own pen in hand. 

The " execrable thing," as he called the treaty, 
was at last ratified, under the influence of Wash- 
ington's discovery of Randolph's perfidy. But an 
equally fierce and much more dangerous crisis was 
created by the effort of its opponents in the House 
of Representatives to obtain the diplomatic papers 
concerning it, and to obstruct its fulfillment by re- 
fusing the necessary legislation. Here again Jef- 
ferson went heartily to the extreme length upon 
which his party ventured. He was led to say some 
things not nicely consistent with certain of his re- 
cent official utterances. But the excitement was 
so great and the political opportunity so promising, 
that no party leader could have allowed himself to 
be fettered by dispassionate opinions on merely 
cognate questions of principle which had been un- 
advisedly given by him at cabinet consultations in 
quieter times. Yet the ultimate triumph of the 
Federalists in these treaty disputes left Jefferson 
«heerful under defeat. " It has been to them," he 



IN RETREAT 163 

said, " a dear-bought victory ; it has given the most 
radical shock to their party which it has ever re- 
ceived." It leaves them so " that nothing can sup- 
port them but the colossus of the President's merits 
with the people ; and the moment he retires, his 
successor, if a monocrat, will be overborne by the 
republican sense of his constituents ; if a Repub- 
lican, he will of course give fair play to that sense, 
and lead things into the channel of harmony be- 
tween the governors and governed. In the mean 
time, patience." 

The prospect of Republicanism was brightening 
when this shrewd judge could contemplate the pos- 
sibility of Washington being succeeded by a pro- 
fessor of that faith. Such, indeed, was the state 
of feeling in the nation at large, and so much were 
the sympathy with France and the aversion toward 
England stimulated by hatred of the treaty, that a 
Republican victory would have been less wonderful 
than many things which happen in popular poli- 
tics. The Federal party had been forcing many 
unpopular measures, and making many enemies. 
It was visibly losing ground ; but it did not lose 
quite fast enough to give the Republicans control 
of the next election. Jefferson must have "pa- 
tience " yet a little longer. 



CHAPTER Xn 

VICE-PRESIDENT 

It should be borne in mind that at the time of 
the third presidental election, 1, the electors were 
still permitted to exercise some individual discre. 
tion and independence ; 2, the votes for president 
and vice-president were not separately cast, but 
the person receiving the highest number of votes 
was president, and the person receiving the next 
highest number was vice-president. In spite of 
the hopes of Jefferson and the fears of Adams, the 
Federalists were abundantly able to control the 
choice of both officers. But the lack of harmony 
in their councils created a danger which they un- 
dervalued and failed properly to guard against. 
Upon the whole, Adams deserved to win in the 
competition which existed within his own party; 
and after some discussion it became generally un- 
derstood that he should be regarded as the Feder- 
alist candidate for the first place, and that Thomas 
Pinckney should have the second position. But 
the Federalist pstrty was preeminently a party of 
leaders, and could easily have furnished at least a 
dozen men, each abundantly fit for the presidency. 
Among so many Adams was not so palpably and 



VICE-PRESIDENT 155 

undeniably first that all had to admit his claim ; 
on the contrary, many questioned it and many were 
personally his enemies. In this condition of feel- 
ing, his followers became naturally but unfortu- 
nately suspicious that one or more of the Federalist 
votes might be diverted from him by machinations 
of Hamilton, or that some southern Republican, 
more attached to his section than to his party, 
might vote for Pinckney. In either contingency 
Adams might, of course, have been only vice-presi- 
dent. The Republicans, on the other hand, had 
no such difficulties ; Jefferson was their unques- 
tioned leader ; Madison was greatly his inferior in 
the science of practical politics, and Clinton, Burr, 
Monroe, and Gallatin were all second-rate men. 
So the Republicans went into the colleges thor- 
oughly united, while the Federalists, distrusting 
each other, sought not only a party but a partisan 
success. Some of the Adams men, to defend him 
against the suspected hostility and schemes of 
Pinckney's friends, threw away their second votes. 
The result was that Jefferson came in ahead of 
Pinckney, and was even within four votes of beat- 
ing Adams himself.^ Thus by inexcusable bad 
faith and bad management the Federalists lost the 
second place and gravely imperiled the first. Jef- 
ferson would have permitted no such bungling in a 
party led by him. 

December 17, 1796, Jefferson wrote to Madi- 

1 Adams received 71 votes, Jefferson 68, Pinckney 59, Burr 30,' 
the rest were scattering. 



156 THOMAS JEFFERSON 

Bon : "The first wish of my heart was, that you 
should have been proposed for the administratioi? 
of the government. On your declining it, I wish 
anybody rather than myself ; and there is nothing 
I so anxiously hope, as that my name may come 
out either second or third." Ten days later he 
wrote to Rutledge : " My name, however, was 
again brought forward without concert or expecta- 
tion on my part ; (on my salvation I declare it.) 
... I protest before my God that I shall from 
the bottom of my heart rejoice at escaping. ... I 
have no ambition to govern men ; no passion which 
would lead me to delight to ride in a storm. . . . 
My attachment is to my home," etc., etc. January 
1, 1797, he told Madison : " No motive could have 
induced me to undertake the first [office], . . . 
The second is the only office in the world about 
which I cannot decide in my own mind, whether 
I had rather have it or not have it." Undoubt- 
edly in these passages the " lady doth protest too 
much ; " but Jefferson only behaved as nine men 
out of ten, in like situations, always have behaved 
and always will behave. He deprecated the idea 
that he coveted anything so much as the lot of 
living quietly at home ; but he took all he could 
get once, twice, and thrice, and spent twelve years 
at the national capital without any determined ef- 
forts to escape. 

While he played the great game of the Republi- 
cans with consummate skill and in the best of 
spirits, Jefferson never neglected those little affeo« 



VICE-PRESIDENT 157 

tations which win the confidence of shallow look- 
ers-on. He now took pains to arrange that no spe- 
cial messenger should be sent to notify him of his 
election, but that the simple, inexpensive, eminently 
republican means of the post-office should be em- 
ployed. Concerning the inauguration he said : " I 
hope I shall be made a part of no ceremony what- 
ever. I shall escape into the city as covertly as 
possible. If Governor Mifflin should show any 
symptoms of ceremony, pray contrive to parry 
them." He succeeded in carrying out this plan of 
slipping as it were unobserved into office ; and 
Adams, who had quite the contrary taste, absorbed 
the popular attention. 

Jefferson came to the vice-presidency in a cheer- ' ^ 
ful and sanguine temper. He saw plainly that 
Hamilton was no longer to hold supreme control 
over a united party, and Hamilton was the only 
man among the Federalists whom he really feared. 
Neither was he sorry to have Washington also out 
of the way, for he had long regarded Washington 
as a Federalist, moderate, patriotic, and honest 
indeed, but vastly more dangerous than better 
partisans, because of his overshadowing influence. 
June 17, 1797, he acknowledged in a letter to 
Burr that he had " always hoped that, the popu^ 
larity of the late President being once withdrawl 
from active effect, the natural feelings of the peo- 
ple towards liberty would restore the equilibrium 
between the executive and legislative departments, 
which had been destroyed by the superior weight 



168 THOMAS JEFFERSON 

and effect of that popularity." For a few weeks 
now lie even ventured to contemplate the possi- 
bility of harmonious relations between Mr. Adams 
and himself, which signified, of course, that by his 
astuteness he would achieve an influence over the 
blunt, impetuous, and egotistical President. As 
the best introduction to this friendliness, he had 
quickly formed the clever design of making hatred 
of Hamilton a bond of union between Adams and 
himself, and he promptly set about strengthening 
in Adams's jealous and suspicious nature a senti- 
ment which would put the hot-headed New Eng- 
land er quite within his control. On December 28, 
1796, he wrote to Adams : " It is possible, indeed, 
that even you may be cheated of your succession by 
a trick worthy the subtlety of your arch friend of 
New York, who has been able to make of your 
real friends tools for defeating their and your just 
wishes." From this time until they met he studi- 
ously made the most cordial professions, and cast 
abroad suave and pleasant remarks like decoys to 
the very uncertain old bird whom he was hopeful 
to lure. For a day or two after his arrival at the 
seat of government his anticipations seemed cor- 
rect. He came to Philadelphia on March 2, " and 
called instantly on Mr. Adams. . . . The next 
morning he returned my visit. . . . He found me 
alone in my rooms, and shutting the door himself, 
he said he was glad to find me alone, for that he 
wished a free conversation with me." The " free 
conversation " must hav6 been most grateful ; for 



VICE-PRESIDENT 159 

the President expressed his wish to avoid the im- 
minent rupture with France, and to send an " im- 
mediate mission to the Directory." Nay, it was 
even " the first wish of his heart " to make Jeffer- 
son the envoy ; but since both agreed that this was 
impossible, Adams suggested that Gerry and Madi- 
son, Republicans both, should be joined with Pinck- 
ney as commissioners. Such fortune was too good 
to last. Three days later Jefferson walked home 
with Adams from a dinner party at General Wash- 
ington's house, and was obliged to say that Madi- 
son's refusal was positive. Thereupon Mr. Adams 
" immediately said that, on consultation, some ob- 
jections to that nomination had been raised which 
he had not contemplated ; and was going on with 
excuses which evidently embarrassed him, when 
. . . our road separated, . . . and we took leave ; 
and he never after that said one word to me on 
the subject, or ever consulted me as to any mea- 
sures of the government." Thus, after such fleet- 
ing courtesies, the President and Vice-President fell 
permanently asunder ; and somewhat later we find 
Jefferson wholly uninformed concerning most in- 
teresting items of foreign diplomatic proceedings. 
In fact, Adams came not bringing peace, but a 
sword ; and the animosities of parties and of indi- 
viduals have never been fiercer in this country 
than they were during his administration. 

Very soon it seemed as though a real sword 
would be drawn in what the Republicans deemed 
an unholy, if not quite a fratricidal, conflict with 



160 THOMAS JEFFERSON 

France. The Directory, crazed with Napoleon's 
Tictories, were finding causes of war against all 
mankind. A rumor had even gained currency that 
the failure to elect Jefferson president would be 
construed as the sufficient inducement for hostili- 
ties against the United States. The question no 
longer was whether this country should be driven 
into declaring war, but whether France would begin 
it. She professed to consider the recent treaty 
with England as a breach of treaties previously 
made with herself. When Pinckney arrived to 
succeed Monroe as minister, she insolently turned 
him away ; she issued most extraordinary decrees 
against American commerce, and committed intol- 
erable depredations upon American shipping ; her 
Directory dismissed Monroe with compliments to 
himself so framed as to be also insults to the gov- 
ernment which had recalled him, and declared that 
no successor would be received until the United 
States should have made a satisfactory redress of 
grievances, though what grievances had occurred 
was unknown. Such exasperating items of news, 
coming in rapid succession, fired the hot temper 
of Mr. Adams, disgusted moderate citizens, and of 
course strengthened the party hostile to France. 
An extra session of Congress was convened in May, 
and was advised by the President to create a navy, 
to fortify harbors, and generally to prepare for 
defensive war. The Vice-President's party, on 
the other hand, became anxious and despondent. 
Things seemed to be going against them. Jefferv 



VICE-PRESIDENT 161 

son noted that "the changes in the late election 
have been unfavorable to the Republican inter- 
est ; " and though " peace was the universal wish," 
yet he was fearful that Congress might " now raise 
their tone to that of the executive, and embark in 
all the measures indicative of war, and, by taking 
a threatening posture, provoke hostilities from the 
opposite party." " War," he said, " is not the best 
engine for us to resort to. Nature has given us 
one in our commerce, which, if properly managed, 
will be a better instrument for obliging the inter- 
ested nations of Europe to treat us with justice." 
He was in favor of an embargo. Further, he 
thought that the warlike cry was " raised by a fac- 
tion composed of English subjects residing among 
us, or such as are English in all their relations and 
sentiments." By June 17 he noted with pleasure 
that " Bonaparte's victories and those on the Khine, 
the Austrian peace, British bankruptcy, mutiny of 
the seamen,^ and Mr. King's exhortations to pacific 
measures," had alarmed people into more submis- 
sive sentiments. 

Adams, though naturally combative, justly felt 
it his duty to keep the peace if possible. Accord- 
ingly, while France still lingered in the stage of 
threats and outrages, he appointed Gerry and Mar- 
shall to join Pinckney in Paris as envoys extraor- 
dinary. Jefferson earnestly implored Gerry to go. 
He wrote : " Peace is undoubtedly at present the 
first object of our nation. Interest and honor are 
^ The famous mutiny at the Nore. 



162 THOMAS JEFFERSON 

also national considerations. But interest, duly 
weighed, is in favor of peace even at the expense 
of spoliations past and future ; and honor cannot 
now be an object. The insults and injuries com- 
mitted on us by both the belligerent parties, from 
the beginning of 1793 to this day, and still con- 
tinuing, cannot now be wiped off by engaging in 
war with one of them." Nor is his old fear of 
the monarchists banished ; " be assured," he says, 
" that if we engage in a war during our present 
passions and our present weakness in some quar- 
ters, our Union runs the greatest risk of not com- 
ing out of that war in the same shape in which 
it enters it. My reliance for our preservation is 
on your acceptance of this mission." Under such 
pressure Gerry accepted, but in an evil hour for 
himself. 

Jefferson has left a gloomy picture of the times. 
The "present passions," he says, were such that 
political opponents could no longer "separate the 
business of the state from that of society," and 
" speak to each other." " Men who have been 
intimate all their lives cross the street to avoid 
meeting, and turn their heads another way lest 
they should be obliged to touch their hats." All 
this, he says, is " afflicting " to him, since " tran- 
quillity is the old man's milk." Certainly it did 
not advance his tranquillity that, in this summer 
of 1797, his famous letter to Mazzei found its way 
before the public. This had been written April 
24, 1796, to his old friend and neighbor in Vir. 



VICE-PRESIDENT 163 

ginia, the Italian Mazzei, then in Europe ; had 
been translated "from English into Italian, from 
Italian into French, and from French into Eng- 
lish." In its original form its important paragraph 
was as follows : — 

" The aspect of our politics has wonderfully changed 
since you left us. In place of that noble love of liberty 
and republican government which carried us trium- 
phantly through the war, an Anglican monarchical aris- 
tocratical party has sprung up, whose avowed object is 
to draw over us the substance, as they have already done 
the forms, of the British government. The main body 
of our citizens, however, remain true to their republican 
principles ; the whole landed interest is republican, and 
so is a great mass of talents. Against us are the Execu- 
tive, the Judiciary, two out of three branches of the 
Legislature, all the officers of the government, all who 
want to be officei's, all timid men who prefer the calm 
of despotism to the boisterous sea of hberty, British 
merchants, and Americans trading on British capitals, 
speculators and holders in the banks and public funds, a 
contrivance invented for the purpose of corruption, and 
for assimilating us in all things to the rotten as well as 
the sound parts of the British model. It would give 
you a fever were I to name to you the apostates who 
have gone over to these heresies, men who were Sam- 
sons in the field and Solomons in the council, but who 
have had their heads shorn by the harlot, England. In 
short, we are likely to preserve the liberty we have ob- 
tained, only by unremitting labors and perils. But we 
shall preserve it ; and our mass of weight and wealth 
on the good side is so great as to leave no danger that 



164 THOMAS JEFFERSON 

force will ever be attempted against us. We have only 
to awake and snap the Lilliputian cords with which they 
have been entangling us during the first sleep which 
succeeded our labors." 

In the shape in which this letter at last came 
into print in the United States, the " general 
substance," as Jefferson admitted, remained his, 
and only one mistake was worth correction. The 
Federalists at once raised a howl of indignation. 
Washington had been traduced, they said, falsely, 
basely, perfidiously, by an appa,rent friend. Un- 
questionably there was a disagreeable aspect about 
the matter, which it would have been pleasant to 
be able to remove, but presumably there were diffi- 
culties in the way of a thorough removal ; at least 
Jefferson wisely refrained from entangling expla- 
nations.^ Many years afterward he alleged ^ that 
his strictures were not aimed at Washington, but 
at the other members of the Cincinnati ; and that 
Washington himself could not have misconstrued 
the letter. But Federalist historians have taken 
these tardy glosses no more kindly than the party 
at the time took the letter. Afterward a story was 
circulated that Washington, with much severity, 
called Jefferson to account, that Jefferson humbly 
apologized or explained, but that the correspond- 

1 See his letter to Madison of August 3, 1797 ; Works (Cong. 
ed.), iv. 193. 

2 See his letter to Van Buren of June 29, 1824, which contains 
Jefferson's side of this famous controversy, very carefully and 
fully stated. Works (Cong, ed.), vii. 362. 



VICE-PRESIDENT 165 

ence and a volume of Washington's " Diary " had 
disappeared, presumably through the aid of the 
private secretary, Lear, with whom Jefferson was 
on a footing of friendship, which in this connection 
seemed suspicious. All this Jefferson vigorously 
denied, and even such a partisan as Mr. Hildreth 
admits that " the evidence of the story is wholly 
insufficient." Federalists then, however, and Fed- 
eralist writers ever since, have strenuously asserted 
that Jefferson forfeited Washington's confidence, 
as if this fact, if true, ought to involve a like with- 
drawal of confidence by every one else. It has 
always seemed to the thorough Federalist that to 
question the perfect wisdom of Washington in mat- 
ters political was a sort of secular profanity, and 
of this crime Jefferson was on some few occasions 
guilty. Yet in the main Jefferson undoubtedly had 
a sincere and honest reverence for Washington's 
character, and was not hypocritical in treating him 
with respect and regard. Though at times he 
deplored to his friends the use and effect of the 
President's influence, and though, also, he prob- 
ably underrated Washington's intellectual ability, 
yet in his strictly personal behavior and relations 
towards Washington he compares very favorably 
even with the Federalist John Adams. Neither 
did he leave behind him any opinions concerning 
Washington's mental powers nearly so derogatory 
as those which Timothy Pickering, most stalwart 
of Federalists, has bequeathed in his manuscripts. 
He was further very bitterly reproached for not 



166 THOMAS JEFERSON 

controlling or ostracizing certain notorious Repultv 
lican writers, who assailed Washington with such 
a coarse and brutal atrocity as recalls the worst 
days of Grub Street. It was unfortunate that he 
did not use his influence to restrain these men, or 
that he did not venture to visit them with his per- 
sonal disfavor. It may be fairly questioned how 
far the head of a party can be held responsible for 
the tail ; but Americans always have thought, and 
always will think, that the ease of Washington 
was peculiar and deserved a rule for itself. It was 
unpardonable to permit such gross libels as were 
uttered concerning him, if they could be stopped ; 
this has been the sober judgment of posterity 
no less than of all dispassionate contemporaries ; 
and it has always been believed that Jefferson 
could have safely and efficiently exercised such 
a restraining authority. In his exculpation it can 
only be said that he was never coercive in han- 
dling his followers, and that his policy was to allow 
the extreme of freedom in abuse as well as in more 
commendable matters. He himself often endured 
malignant and false assaults in silence. Neverthe- 
less the American people have never forgiven him 
for standing by with apparent unconcern while 
Washington was writhing under the villainous cal- 
umnies of the Republican news-writers. At the 
time the opportunity to represent that Jefferson 
was habitually backbiting Washington, that he 
was at last detected flagrante delicto^ and that 
there was consequent alienation between the two, 



VICE-PRESIDENT 167 

was a useful weapon vigorously used by the Feder- 
alists with, perhaps, as much honesty as is consid- 
ered necessary in political controversy. 

Meantime the envoys, Pinckney, Marshall, and 
Gerry, were very ill received in Paris, or rather 
were not diplomatically received at all. The Di- 
rectory refused to treat until their own mysterious 
grievances should have been redressed, and apolo- 
gies made for offensive language in Mr. Adams's 
speech to Congress. The unfortunate trio, in- 
dignant, harassed, and despairing, were already 
contemplating an ignominious return from a boot- 
less errand, when they were surprised by a visit 
from certain private emissaries of Talleyrand. In 
a series of interviews these go-betweens proposed 
that the United States should make a public loan 
to the Directory, and pay a handsome bribe into 
the hands of Talleyrand, whereupon injuries and 
excuses might be pretermitted, and negotiations 
would advance prosperously. Much talk was 
wasted on this shameless proposition which, fortu- 
nately, came to nothing. Then at last Marshall 
and Pinckney withdrew in disgust. Gerry fool- 
ishly, though not altogether without some specious 
excuse, suffered himself to be persuaded into re- 
maining for a while alone ; an action upon his 
part which was doubtless honestly intended, but 
which was at best of questionable propriety, and 
which subJ3cted him to fierce denunciation from 
the Federalists, who declared that he was either 
the dupe or the willing tool of the Directory. 



168 THOMAS JEFFERSON 

In March, 1798, the President, in a state of 
great irritation, announced to Congress and to the 
country the failure of the mission. The excite- 
ment was intense. The Federalists hurried for- 
ward with motions for defensive preparations, and 
for strengthening and organizing the army and 
the navy ; they no longer admitted a possibility of 
avoiding war. The Republicans were greatly dis- 
turbed, but maintained a stout opposition, not ab- 
solutely devoid of effect ; they resembled a brake 
grating upon wheels which may be impeded, but 
cannot be stayed. Very soon, however, the wheels 
seemed to free themselves from all check. For in 
response to a demand upon the President for the 
correspondence of the envoys, the whole disgrace- 
ful story of the proceedings at Paris was made 
public. Only in place of the real names of the 
go-betweens there were substituted the letters 
X Y Z, which thereaf terward gave a name to the 
whole affair. The country burst into furious in- 
dignation. The President, losing his head as usual 
when the hot blood surged towards his brain, made 
his famous and foolish assertion that no minister 
should again be sent to France without previous 
assurance that he should be received as the envoy 
of a " great, free, independent, and powerful peo- 
ple." The Federalists in Congress pushed through 
one vigorous war measure after another ; the mass 
of the people, who oscillate in the middle space 
between the decided partisans, now went over in 
full force to the Federal side ; the Republicans 



VICE-PRESIDENT 169 

were discomfited and almost despairing; some 
held their peace in temporary despair and confu- 
sion, while a few kept up the fight, in the desperate 
temper of the Spartans at Thermopylae. Scarcely 
any one of either party dared to doubt that war 
was close at hand. 

Amid all this turmoil, madness, and Republican 
demoralization, Jefferson displayed a coolness and 
ability quite rare and admirable. Like others of 
his way of thinking, he received at first a painful 
shock from the X Y Z developments, but rallied 
with superb courage and promptness. The occur- 
rence proved to him that Talleyrand was a rascal, 
but not that alienation was either necessary or pro- 
per between France and the United States. For 
Jefferson's political faith was a profound, immuta- 
ble conviction, not to be overthrown by isolated 
miscarriages however unfortunate. His eternal 
confidence in the cause of freedom and of the peo- 
ple was never shaken by the blunders of honest 
but wrong-headed colleagues, such as Genet had 
been, nor by the crimes or treachery of base indi- 
viduals like Talleyrand and the Directory. He 
did not lose belief in principles because their pro- 
minent advocates now and again lacked wisdom or 
integrity. His abiding constancy proves that he 
was not a hypocrite, time-server, and demagogue, 
but a thorough and sincere believer in the political 
doctrines which he publicly professed. In matters 
of detail he was politic, not always ingenuous, not 
rigidly truthful, not altogether incapable of subter- 



170 THOMAS JEFFERSON 

fuge and even of meanness. But he never in any 
stress deserted, or even temporarily disavowed, his 
main principles. He never lost faith or courage. 
Democrats might commit follies, errors, and 
crimes, but he stood steadfastly by democracy. 
He did not trim his sail to every flaw on the politi- 
cal ocean, but awaited through the longest unpro- 
mising days, with a noble patience, the powerful 
and steady gale which he was convinced would in 
time carry the nation upon the true course. For 
though a master of political craft he was not 
merely a politician ; he was a great statesman, 
with broad views and grand purposes, whether 
sound or not. Periods like that through which he 
was now passing proved these facts. While nar- 
rower intellectual visions were filled by the ugly 
panel of the panorama directly before them, Jef- 
ferson said : this will soon glide into the limbo of 
past scenes, and must not alone fasten a character 
upon the whole spectacle ; the odiousness of this 
special display is no reason for condemning the 
entire show, which, as a whole, is noble and im- 
proving. So all his efforts were aimed at gaining 
time, and he urged a relentless opposition to all 
measures in the way of warlike preparation. 

Events justified Jefferson's policy ; yet for the 
time there seemed so little likelihood of such a re- 
sult that it is difficult to say that he was right in 
opposing all precautionary measures. The result 
did not come about in the way that he expected. 
Nor were his hopes of an agreeable kind ; for he 



VICE-PRESIDENT 171 

anticipated that a series of French victories would 
soon so discourage the people that they would pre- 
fer to submit to unjust French demands rather 
than to encounter invincible French troops. In 
fact, the escape came not in this humiliating shape, 
but through the different and surprising channel of 
conciliatory advances on the part of France and an 
extraordinary response from Mr. Adams. Talley- 
rand, confounded by the publication of his knav- 
ery, but too wise to fall into a rage, which would 
have been substantially a plea of guilty, declared 
that the whole X Y Z episode had been a huge 
mistake. Soon he further intimated to Vans 
Murray, the American minister at the Hague, that 
France desired to reopen negotiations on a friendly 
footing. The whole story is one of the most inter- 
esting in the history of the United States, but as it 
is also one of the most familiar, there can be no 
excuse for appropriating any of our limited space 
to its repetition. The result was, as every one 
knows, that Mr. Adams, of his own motion, dis- 
patched a new embassy to France, succeeded in 
making a treaty and avoiding a war, and by his 
courage, independence, and obstinacy conferred 
upon the United States as great a good as the 
country has ever received at the hands of a presi- 
dent. At the same time he split the already in- 
harmonious Federal party into two hostile divisions, 
which for the future hated each other with that 
peculiar virulence which marks a family feud. 
During Mr. Adams's administration the Federal- 



172 THOMAS JEFFERSON 

ists, besides falling into many foolish quarrcJa and 
blunders, were guilty of one real political crime. 
This was the passage, amid the French excitement, 
of the Alien and Sedition acts, statutes probably 
contrary to the letter and certainly grossly discord- 
ant with the spirit of the Constitution. Under 
the extreme provocation thus given, Jefferson's 
wonted coolness and sagacity deserted him, and he 
concocted a Republican antidote far worse than 
the Federalist poison. He drew the wicked "Ken- 
tucky resolutions." Intending them as a protest 
against unconstitutional enactments, he far outran 
the constitutional limits of the most vigorous pro- 
test, and wrote a document which was simply revo- 
lutionary. Even the reckless frontier legislators 
administered a severe blood - letting to it before 
they would pass it. Yet even in its modified form 
it remained a foundation and sufficient precedent 
and authority for all the subsequent secession doc- 
trines of the Eastern States, for the nullification 
proceedings of South Carolina, almost, if not quite, 
for the rebellion of 1861. Reacting against ex- 
treme oppression, Jefferson fell into the abyss of 
what has since been regarded as treason. The 
misfortune is attributable to his theorizing argu- 
mentative habit of laying down abstract doctrines 
of right and wrong in matters of government. In 
his defense it can only be said that nullification 
and secession appeared less heinous in his day than 
in later times. Even Madison soon afterward 
drew the Virginia resolutions, only a little less 



VICE-PRESIDENT 173 

objectionable than the work of Jefferson. It is 
indicative of the light in which such doctrines were 
then regarded, that these proceedings did not seri- 
ously injure either their authors or the party whiclr 
adopted them. 

Yet when it was the other party that founa 
threats of secession convenient, Jefferson was fully 
sensible of the folly of such schemes. In June, 
1798, he wrote : — 

" If on a temporary superiority of one of the parties 
the other is to resort to a scission of the Union, no federal 
government can ever exist. If to rid ourselves of the 
present rule of Massachusetts and Connecticut, we break 
the Union, will the evil stop there ? Suppose the New 
England States alone cut off, will our nature be changed ? 
Are we not men still to the south of that, and with all 
the passions of men ? Immediately we shall see a Penn- 
sylvania and a Virginia party arise in the residuary con- 
federacy, and the public mind will be distracted with 
the same party spirit. What a game, too, will the one 
party have in their hands by eternally threatening the 
other that unless they do so and so they will immediately 
join their northern neighbors ! If we reduce our Union 
to Virginia and North Carolina, immediately the conflict 
will be estabhshed between the representatives of these 
two States, and they will end by breaking into their 
simple units." 

In other words, secession was a medicine which 
only one physician could be allowed to prescribe. 

In March, 1800, both parties were already N 

eagerly forecasting the chances of the autumnal 



174 THOMAS JEFFERSON 

elections. Jefferson wrote : " The Federalists be- 
gin to be very seriously alarmed about their elec- 
tion next fall. Their speeches in private, as well 
as their public and private demeanor to me, indi- 
cate it strongly." After a careful discussion of 
the chances in the doubtful States, he cautiously 
declared his own conclusion : " Upon the whole 
I consider it as rather more doubtful than the 
last election, in which I was not deceived in more 
than a vote or two." But he allows it to be plainly 
read between the lines that, though stopping short 
of actually predicting a Republican success, he is 
really very sanguine of it. He had abundant 
ground for stronger hopes than he expressed. 

The Federalists threw aside all scruples in con- 
ducting their campaign. A sample of the abuse 
and falsehood in which they dealt may be seen in 
one of the stories which they circulated concerning 
Jefferson, charging that " he had obtained his 
property by fraud and robbery ; that in one in- 
stance he had defrauded and robbed a widow and 
fatherless children of an estate to which he was 
executor, of ten thousand pounds sterling, by keep- 
ing the property and paying them in money at the 
nominal rate, when it was worth no more than 
forty to one." The facts were stated by Jefferson 
to one of his friends as follows : — 

" I never was executor but in two instances, both of 
which having taken place about the beginning of the 
Revolution, which withdrew me immediately from all 
private pursuits, I never meddled in either executorship. 



VICE-PRESIDENT 176 

In one of the cases only were there a widow and chil- 
dren. She was my sister. She retained and managed 
the estate in her own hands, and no part of it was 
ever in mine. In the othei* I was a copartner and only 
received on a division the equal portion allotted me. 
. . . Again, my property is all patrimonial, except 
about seven or eight hundred pounds' worth of lands, 
purchased by myself and paid for, not to widows and 
orphans, but to the very gentleman from whom I pur- 
chased." 

These denials, he said, he would vouchsafe to 
his friend, but added, " I only pray that my letter 
may not go out of your hands, lest it should get 
into the newspapers, a bear-garden scene into 
which I have made it a point to enter on no pro- 
vocation." He was probably the better able to 
keep this wise resolution, because he shrewdly ap- 
preciated that the rancor and personal malignity 
of his opponents were a sure indication of their 
sense of weakness and of coming defeat. The 
party which indulges most freely in false personal 
vituperation almost invariably finds itself beaten 
at the polls. 

This outcome grew steadily more certain as the 
election drew nearer. The Federalists were dis- 
heartened and fore-doomed by the internal dissen- 
sions which split their party into factions more 
hostile and jealous towards each other than to- 
wards the common foe. The schism which Adams 
had opened could not be closed, and inevitable de- 
struction awaited a house so divided against itself. 



176 THOMAS JEFFERSON 

Defeat was further insured by the admirable con- 
dition of the Republican party. It seems prob- 
able that for some time before the autumn of 1800, 
a fair polling of the people would have shown 
many more voters of Republican than of Federal- 
ist proclivities. It had been the ability and in- 
dividual force of the Federalist leaders which had 
enabled them to maintain the party supremacy so 
long. But at last the Republicans had become 
thoroughly consolidated, and now, cheered by the 
spectacle presented by their discordant adversa- 
ries, they were united, enthusiastic, and confident. 
It had taken time for discipline and organization 
to become perfectly established throughout their 
masses, more especially because the labor had 
fallen almost exclusively upon one man. For Jef- 
ferson had been obliged to assume the task with 
very little assistance. Burr alone, in New York, 
had proved a really able political lieutenant. At 
last, however, by tactics and policy intangible and 
indescribable but wonderfully efficient, the im- 
mense multitudes which constituted the Republi- 
can raw material had been moulded into an irre- 
sistible array, and he who had done this feat still 
justly enjoys the reputation of being the ablest 
political leader who has ever lived in this country. 
The secret of Jefferson's control of the ignorant 
populace was undoubtedly his honest faith in 
them ; they instinctively felt that his profession of 
belief in the lower two thirds of the community 
was genuine ; in return they gave gratitude and 



VICE-PRESIDENT 177 

confidence, and for years patiently submitted to 
the drill, which he conducted with admirable tem- 
per and untiring perseverance. Thus he had now 
at length made them an invincible body, accom- 
plishing in politics with the voters of the United 
States very much the same thing that Napoleon 
was doing in military matters with the untutored 
militia of France, inspiring them with the irresisti- 
ble spirit of victory. 

This comparative condition of the two parties 
was so well understood that no intelligent observer 
was surprised at the result of the elections. There 
had been some talk of the old manoeuvre of with- 
drawing a few Federalist votes from Adams in 
order to bring in Charles C. Pinckney ahead of 
him ; but the leaders became aware of the peril of 
their situation in time to shun this folly. There 
had also been some danger that a few Republican 
votes might be thrown away, in order to prevent 
the occurrence of a tie between the two Kepublican 
candidates. On December 15 Jefferson wrote : 
*' Decency required that I should be so entirely 
passive during the late contest, that I never once 
asked whether arrangements had been made to 
prevent so many from dropping votes intentionally 
as might frustrate half the Republican wish; nor 
did I doubt, till lately, that such had been made." 
In spite of this protestation, it is altogether incred- 
ible that a party led by Jefferson would ever have 
been permitted to lapse into so unpardonable a 
blunder as that which had made him vice-presif 



178 THOMAS JEFFERSON 

dent, especially after the palpable warning of that 
occurrence. In fact, when the time came neither 
party wasted any strength, and the votes of the 
electoral colleges showed for Jefferson 73 votes, 
for Burr 73, for Adams 65, for C. C. Pinckney 
64, for Jay 1. The equality between Jefferson 
and Burr of course cast the election into the House 
of Representatives. 

A period of extreme anxiety had now to be 
endured, scarcely more by Jefferson than by the 
whole people of the United States. For the politi- 
cal composition of the House was such that the 
Kepublicans could not control the choice, and the 
Federalists, though of course still more unable 
to do so, yet had the power by holding steadily 
together to prevent any election whatsoever. Mo- 
mentous as such a political crime would be, never- 
theless many influential Federalists soon showed 
themselves sufficiently embittered and vindictive 
to contemplate it. " Several of the high-flying 
Federalists," wrote Jefferson, December 15, 1800, 
" have expressed their determination ... to pre- 
vent a choice by the House of Representatives . . . 
and let the government devolve on a president 
of the Senate." This threat naturally produced 
" great dismay and gloom on the Republican gen- 
tlemen here, and exultation in the Federalists, who 
openly declare they . . . will name a president of 
the Senate pro tern, by what they say would only 
be a stretch of the Constitution." Some Federal- 
ists asserted that even anarchy was preferable to 



VICE-PRESIDENT 179 

the success of Jefferson. December 31, Jefferson 
wrote : " We do not see what is to be the end of 
the present difficulty. The Federalists . . . pro- 
pose to prevent an election in Congress, and to 
transfer the government by an act to the chief jus- 
tice [Jay] or secretary of state [Marshall], or to 
let it devolve on the secretary pro tern, of the Sen- 
ate till next December, which gives them another 
year's predominance and the chances of future 
events. The Republicans propose to press for- 
ward to an election. If they fail in this, a concert 
between the two higher candidates may prevent 
the dissolution of the government and danger of 
anarchy, by an operation bungling indeed and 
imperfect, but better than letting the legislature 
take the nomination of the executive entirely from 
the people." This " operation " was explained, 
after the crisis had passed, as follows : " I have 
been above all things solaced by the prospect 
which opened on us in the event of a non-election 
of a president, in which case the federal govern- 
ment would have been in the situation of a clock 
or watch run down. There was no idea of force, 
nor of any occasion for it. A convention, invited 
by the Republican members of Congress, with the 
virtual president and vice-president, would have 
been on the ground in eight weeks, would have 
repaired the Constitution where it was defective, 
and wound it up again." It was easy for Jeffer- 
son to write thus tranquilly and to settle a terrible 
jeopardy by an obvious simile, after the substan- 



180 THOMAS JEFFERSON 

tial peril had passed away and he had been occu. 
pying the presidential chair for upwards of a 
fortnight. But it was most fortunate for the coun- 
try that he and his friends were not driven to this 
" peaceable and legitimate resource ; " they would 
hardly have succeeded in such an extra-constitu- 
tional process of national watch-winding in the 
teeth of the daring and vindictive men who led the 
powerful Federal minority. Still worse would it 
have been for the infant nation if force had been 
resorted to, of which, though repudiated by Jeffer- 
son, there was some talk by others, in case the 
scheme of making Jay or Marshall president should 
be seriously undertaken. " If they could have been 
permitted," wrote Jefferson, " to pass a law for put- 
ting the government into the hands of an officer, 
they would certainly have prevented an election. 
But we thought it best to declare openly and firmly, 
once for all, that the day such an act passed, the 
Middle States would arm, and that no such usur- 
pation, even for a single day, should be submit- 
ted to. This first shook them ; and they were 
completely alarmed at the resource for which we 
declared, to wit, a convention to reorganize the 
government and to amend it. The very word 
' convention ' gives them the horrors." These let- 
ters present an example of the contradictions into 
which Jefferson was constantly led by his uncon- 
querable passion for construing facts to suit his 
purpose or feelings of the moment. If the threat 
that " the Middle States would arm " was so seri- 



VICE-PRESIDENT 181 

ously made that the Federalists were overawed 
thereby, he was not justified iu complacently say- 
ing that there was " no idea of force nor of any 
occasion for it." It was his disingenuous way of 
making any allegation which would redound to the 
credit of his party and his political creed. 

Perhaps through a fear of some of the conse- 
quences above indicated, or perhaps by reason of a 
revival of good sense and patriotic feeling among 
the Federalist leaders, the more extravagant plans 
were gradually superseded by a project marked by 
nothing worse than petty malice. Before the vot- 
ing in the House was begun, the Federalists had 
determined to rest content with the personal defeat 
of Jefferson. Though the electors could not desig- 
nate which of the two persons for whom they voted 
they intended for president and which for vice- 
president, yet it was perfectly well known that the 
whole Republican party had been of one mind in 
designing the first place for Jefferson. Indeed, for 
this position Burr would have been by no means 
even their second choice ; it was not without reluc- 
tance and hesitation that they had brought them- 
selves to give him the vice-presidency as the price 
of his local influence. But the Federalists, of 
course, cared not at all for these facts ; they only 
cherished a hatred and fear of Jefferson propor- 
tioned to the love and trust felt towards him by 
the Republicans. To throw him out would seem 
half a victory ; and further, many Federalists would 
have been so much pleased to see Adams defeated^ 



182 THOMAS JEFFERSON 

that they would have been almost reconciled to the 
success of that Republican candidate who was really 
undesired by his own party. A revenge which 
hurt so many of those whom they disliked seemed 
likely to tempt anti- Adams Federalists beyond their 
strength of resistance. Happily they were stayed 
from the immediate accomplishment of the plan 
by the impossibility of so dividing the Republican 
members as to effect the necessary combinations; 
and during this fortunate delay strong influences 
were at work to save the party from the stigma of 
such disgraceful conduct. Hamilton strenuously 
and nobly exerted the great authority which he 
still wielded ; and though at first few would listen 
to him, yet in time his wonderful force triumphed 
again as it had so often done in years gone by. It 
is one of the strangest tales that history has to tell, 
that Alexander Hamilton was a chief influence in 
making Thomas Jefferson president of the United 
States. In so doing, the great Federalist acted 
from a strict sense of duty, not from any good-will 
towards Jefferson personally ; and perhaps this fact 
absolved Jefferson from any duty of gratitude, 
which certainly he never manifested in the faintest 
degree, even in a negative way. Upon the seventh 
day of the balloting, February 17, 1801, the long 
anxiety, which had weighed terribly not more upon 
Jefferson individually than upon the people of the 
whole country, was brought to an end. The Feder- 
alist representative from Vermont absented himself ,• 
the two Federalists from Maryland put in blank 



VICE-PRESIDENT 183 

ballots. So ten States, a sufficient number, voted 
for Jefferson for president. No one, as Jefferson 
declared with some pleasure, had changed sides ; 
the result had been achieved not by apostate votes 
but by the more agreeable process of abstention. 
The Constitution had passed through a strain of 
such severity as it has never but once since then 
encountered. Recurrence of the danger was soon 
averted by a constitutional amendment providing 
that the electors should designate in their ballots 
their choice for president and for vice-president. 

Federalist writers have alleged that " terms " 
were made with Jefferson before his election was 
permitted to take place. But this assertion, in- 
tended to cast a blot upon his behavior, has the 
most insignificant foundation, if, indeed, it has any 
at all. He himself said, February 15, 1801, "I 
have declared to them unequivocally, that I would 
not receive the government on capitulation, that I 
would not go into it with my hands tied." He did 
not do so. He was not a man who could ever 
have been induced to such a transaction. The most 
that passed, if anything at all did really pass, was 
a statement made by one of his friends that, if 
elected, he did not intend to set himself to over- 
throw all the important Federalist legislation of 
the past twelve years, or to make a clean sweep 
of Federalist incumbents from government offices. 
If this exposition of his eminently proper intentions 
brought any reassurance to the Federalists it only 
shows how absurdly they were frightened. Jeffep 



184 THOMAS JEFFERSON 

son had been through a trying ordeal in a very 
honorable and clean-handed way ; and in obtaining 
the presidency he got no more than he was right- 
eously entitled to. 

Burr came out as badly as Jefferson came well. 
He had been perfectly willing to acquire the presi- 
dency by the foul means of a Federal alliance, in 
direct contravention of the well-known wishes of 
his own party. A more gross betrayal of confi- 
dence could hardly be conceived, even in political 
life. He had made it clear that his heart was set 
upon personal aggrandizement and not upon a Re- 
publican success. His untrustworthiness appeared 
the more despicable by comparison with the strictly 
honorable conduct of Jefferson, who might have 
excused endeavors on his own behalf upon the 
plausible ground that he was only forwarding the 
avowed will of the party. The antipathy with 
which many persons had long since learned to re- 
gard Burr now became the sentiment of all honest 
and intelligent men in the nation. The time was 
not far distant when he was sorely to need faithful 
friends ; but his conduct in these days of tempta- 
tion had alienated all upright men. His behavior 
was the more base because Jefferson had behaved 
handsomely towards him throughout, and, while 
the question was stiU unsettled, wrote to him that 
" it was to be expected that the enemy would en- 
deavor to sow tares between us, that they might 
divide us and our friends. Every consideration 
satisfies me that you will be on your guard against 



VICE-PRESIDENT 185 

this, as I assure you I am strongly." But how- 
ever Jefferson might deprecate quarrels in the 
party, both on political and personal considera- 
tions, it was not in human nature that his faith in 
Burr should not be gravely impaired, and that his 
private good-will towards such an unscrupulous 
comuetitor should not be completely undermined. 



CHAPTER Xin 

PRESIDENT: FIRST TERM. ^ — OFFICES. CAlr 

LENDER 

On the evening of March 3, 1801, being the last 
day of Federalist domination in the United States, 
the functionaries of the moribund party were busy 
in a not very reputable way. President Adams 
was making Federalist nominations to official po- 
sitions, and sending them in to the Senate, which 
was rapidly confirming them, and John Marshall, 
secretary of state, was signing commissions with 
zealous dispatch. The hour of midnight came 
upon him while thus employed, and a dramatic 
tale represents Levi Lincoln, who was to be attor- 
ney-general under Jefferson, walking into Mar- 
shall's office, with Mr. Jefferson's watch in his 
hand, and staying this process of office-filling pre- 
cisely at twelve o'clock, though many unsigned 
commissions still lay on the table. This behavior 
of the Federalists would have been unhandsome 
enough under any circumstances, but was rendered 
doubly so by the fact that they professed to regard 
Jefferson as pledged not to interfere with the per- 
sons whom he should find occupying governmental 
posts at his accession. Adams added his own 



PRESIDENT: FIRST TERM 187 

little personal insult by driving out of Washing- 
ton during the night, in order to avoid the specta- 
cle of the following day. In one sense of the 
word that spectacle was sufficiently extraordinary 
to be worth seeing, for Jefferson had resolved that 
no pageant should give the lie to his democratic 
principles, and accordingly he rode on horseback, 
clad in studiously plain clothes, without attendants, 
to the capitol, dismounted, tied his horse to the 
fence, and walked unceremoniously into the senate 
chamber.! There he delivered his inaugural ad- 
dress, an effusion rhetorical to excess and breath- 
ing boundless philanthropy. One can read between 
the lines of his declamatory harangue the conviction 
of the speaker that his accession to office marked 
the opening of a glorious epoch in human progress. 
This careful abstinence from display marked the 
new President's whole official career, and at times 
was carried to an extreme which was, perhaps, 
even more pretentious and ill-judged than was the 
contrary fashion which he so pointedly endeavored 
to condemn. For instance, when Mr. Merry, the 
British minister, was to be presented, and went 
" in full official costume " at the appointed day 
and hour, in company with Mr. Madison, the sec- 
retary of state, to the presidential mansion, he was 
astonished by a scene which he described as fol- 
lows : — 

^ This legend is far from being' sufficiently vouched for ; but 
it has been repeated for so long a time, that it has come to be 
accepted as a sort of truth by prescription. 



188 THOMAS JEFFERSON 

"On arriving at the hall of audience we found it 
empty, at which Mr. Madison seemed surprised, and 
proceeded to an entry leading to the President's study. 
I followed him, supposing the introduction was to take 
place in the adjoining room. At this moment Mr. Jef- 
ferson entered the entry at the other end, and all three 
of us were packed in this narrow space, from which, to 
make room, I was obliged to back out. In this awkward 
position my introduction to. the President was made by 
Mr. Madison. Mr. Jefferson's appearance soon ex- 
plained to me that the general circumstances of my re- 
ception had not been accidental, but studied. I, in my 
official costume, found myself, at the hour of reception 
he had himself appointed, introduced to a man as the 
President of the United States, not merely in an undress, 
but actually standing in slippers down at the heels, and 
both pantaloons, coat, and underclothes indicative of utter 
slovenliness and indifference to appearances, and in a 
state of negligence actually studied." 

This was the ostentation of simplicity ; and 
whether it shall be thought better than the osten- 
tation of ceremonial is a mere question of the form 
in which personal vanity happens to be developed, 
though Jefferson preferred to exalt it into matter 
of principle. But beyond being an affectation, it 
had, in this instance at least, a serious effect ; for 
it incensed the minister, who "could not doubt 
that the whole scene was prepared and intended 
as an insult, not, perhaps, to himself personally, 
but to the sovereign whom he represented." Jef- 
ferson's object, however, was not to displease either 
Mr. Merry or George III. ; he aimed his dress and 



PRESIDENT: FIRST TERM 189 

deportment at that section of society in which his 
constitutents were chiefly to be found, and with 
the skill of a good actor he divined accurately the 
taste of his audience. 

When Jefferson was vice-president he had said ; 
" The second office of the government is honor- 
able and easy, the first is but a splendid misery." 
From the foregoing anecdotes it may be conceived 
that he succeeded in escaping the splendor, and 
upon the misery he certainly entered in a remark- 
ably cheerful frame of mind. He was justified in 
doing so, since, in respect alike of the foreign and 
domestic outlook, he had every reason to anticipate 
a tranquil and prosperous administration. Not 
only was his party dominant for the time, but he 
could distinctly foresee that it was likely to retain 
and increase its power through many years to come. 
In this ruling party he was supreme ; he intended 
that his sway should be gentle, reasonable, and 
beneficent, but he knew that it would be none the 
less absolute because his own moderation might 
hold it free from the traditional evil characteristics 
of a despotism. Beneath such genial influences his 
philanthropic good-will towards mankind expanded 
liberally. All his thoughts and words were of 
comprehensive love and universal benevolence. 
He designed to be master of a political menagerie 
in which Federalist lions should lie down peace- 
fully among his flocks of Republican lambs, and 
only a very few irredeemable " monarchist " snakes 
would have to be shut up in a secure cage by them- 



190 THOMAS JEFFERSON 

selves. " My hope," he said, " is that the distinc- 
tion will be soon lost, or, at most, that it will 
be only of a republican and monarchist ; that the 
body of the nation, even that part which French 
excesses forced over to the Federal side, will rejoin 
the Republicans, leaving only those who were pure 
monarchists, and who will be too few to form a 
sect." Amid the exalted sentiments of his florid 
inaugural address he declared that " every differ- 
ence of opinion is not a difference of principle. 
We have called by different names brethren of the 
same principle. We are all republicans — we are 
all federalists. . . . Let us, then, with courage and 
confidence, pursue our own federal and republican 
principles, our attachment to our Union and repre^ 
sentative government." 

In the like spirit he sought in his private utter- 
ances to erase all dividing lines, and to produce an 
harmonious coalition of both parties. A fortnight 
before his inauguration, he acknowledged that the 
behavior of certain Federalist representatives dur- 
ing the election must be construed as a "decla- 
ration of war." " But," he said, " their conduct 
appears to have brought over to us the whole body 
of Federalists, who, being alarmed with the danger 
of a dissolution of the government, had been made 
most anxiously to wish the very administration they 
had opposed, and to view it, when obtained, as a 
child of their own." A few days later he said 
again of the Federalists : " These people (I always 
exclude their leaders) are now aggregated with 



PRESIDENT: FIRST TERM 191 

US ; they look with a certain degree of affection 
and confidence to the administration, ready to be- 
come attached to it, if it avoids in the outset acts 
which might revolt and throw them off. To give 
time for a perfect consolidation seems prudent.'* 
March 14 he says that the many citizens who had 
been thrown into a panic by the revolutionary 
movements in Europe had " pretty thoroughly re 
covered," and "the recovery bids fair to be com 
plete, and to obliterate entirely the line of party 
division which had been so strongly drawn. Not 
that their leaders have come over, or ever can 
come over. But they stand at present almost with- 
out followers." 

Jefferson was notoriously a political visionary, 
and this Utopia of harmony was only one among 
many day-dreams. Yet it was rather an exaggera- 
tion of the facts than an invention. For he was 
really a shrewd observer, though with a sanguine 
temperament ; and in the structures which his im- 
agination reared the blocks were all actualities. 
Thus he was now perfectly right in his predic- 
tion that his party was destined to absorb the 
great bulk of the nation, and to enjoy an ascend- 
ency so complete and so long as to produce nearly 
all the practical effects of a universal fusion of 
opinions. If it was to the credit of his ability as 
a statesman that he so surely foresaw this future, 
it was no less to the credit of his heart that he 
anticipated it in no spirit of ungenerous triumph. 
His gratification was honorable and patriotic, with 



192 THOMAS JEFFERSON 

little tinge of selfishness and none of malignity. 
His joy was for the people rather than for him- 
self, and was really based on the establishment of 
sound principles more than on his own elevation. 
On August 26, 1801, he wrote : " The moment 
which should convince me that a healing of the 
nation into one is impracticable would be the last 
moment of my wishing to remain where I am." 
To this noble end he bent all his thoughts and 
efforts. The mass of the Federalists, he said, 
" now find themselves separated from their quon- 
dam leaders. If we can but avoid shocking their 
feelings by unnecessary acts of severity against 
their late friends, they will in a little time cement 
and form one mass with us, and by these means 
harmony and union be restored to our country, 
which would be the greatest good we could effect." 
The indications of success in this grand en- 
deavor were from time to time hailed by Jefferson 
in a gladsome spirit. New England had always 
been the stronghold of ultra Federalism, an Egyp- 
tian realm of political darkness, according to his 
notions. In his letter of June 1, 1798, already 
quoted, concerning the folly of secession,^ he had 
written: " Seeing that we must have somebody to 
quarrel with, I had rather keep our New England 
associates for that purpose than to see our bick- 
erings transferred to others. They are circum- 
scribed within such narrow limits, and their popu« 
lation so full, that their numbers will ever be the 
1 Ante, p. 173. 



PRESIDENT: FIRST TERM 193 

minority, and they are marked, like the Jews, with 
such a perversity of character as to constitute, 
from that circumstance, the natural division of 
our parties." But by May 3, 1801, he was noting 
with delight symptoms of improving intelligence 
even in this obnoxious region. " A new subject of 
congratulation has arisen," he said ; " I mean the 
regeneration of Rhode Island. I hope it is the 
beginning of that resurrection of the genuine spirit 
of New England which rises for life eternal. Ac- 
cording to natural order, Vermont will emerge 
next, because least, after Rhode Island, under the 
yoke of hierocracy." It was the preachers of New 
England, much accustomed to meddle in matters 
political, whom Jefferson regarded as the most 
dangerous enemies of sound doctrines. " From 
the clergy," he declared, " I expect no mercy. 
They crucified their Saviour, who preached that 
their kingdom was not of this world ; and all who 
practice on that precept must expect the extreme 
of their wrath. The laws of the present day with- 
hold their hands from blood ; but lies and slan- 
der still remain to them." Yet, in spite of these 
misguiding obstructionists, the time was not far 
distant when Massachusetts herseK was to become 
for a time a Republican State. After he had been 
president a single year Jefferson was able to say : 
" Our majority in the House of Representatives 
has been almost two to one ; in the Senate, eigh- 
teen to fifteen. After another election it will be 
of two to one in the Senate, and it would not be 



194 THOMAS JEFFERSON 

for the public good to have it greater. . . . The 
candid Federalists acknowledge that their party 
can never more raise its head." But he wisely 
added : " We shall now be so strong that we shall 
certainly split again ; . . . but it must be under 
another name ; that of Federalism is become so 
odious that no party can rise under it." 

This result had been greatly furthered by Jef- 
ferson's wise moderation in the matter of remov- 
als from office. He has been accused of having 
planted the villainous seed which has since grown 
into the huge wickedness of the so-called " spoils 
system," but the charge is unjustifiable. The con- 
duct of the Federalists in the matter of filling 
offices prior to his inauguration gave him such pro- 
vocation and excuse as would have induced many 
men to set about an extensive proscription. He 
did nothing of the kind, but on the contrary be- 
haved with a liberality towards his opponents 
which has never been rivaled by any of his suc- 
cessors, save only John Quincy Adams, and which 
since the evil days of Andrew Jackson would be 
regarded as nothing less than quixotic. On Feb- 
ruary 14, 1801, in reply to a letter concerning this 
interesting subject, he wrote : " No man who has 
conducted himself according to his duties would 
have anything to fear from me, as those who have 
done ill would have nothing to hope, be their polit- 
ical principles what they might. . . . The Repub- 
licans have been excluded from all offices from the 
first origin of the division into Republican and 



PRESIDENT: FIRST TERM 195 

Federalist. They have a reasonable claim to va- 
cancies till they occupy their due share." The 
righteousness of this proposition could hardly be 
controverted, and Jefferson was justified in expect- 
ing the " justice and good sense of the Federal- 
ists " to induce them to " concur in the fairness of 
the position, that after they have been in the ex. 
elusive possession of all offices from the very first 
origin of party among us to the 3d of March at 
nine o'clock in the night, no Republican ever ad- 
mitted, ... it is now perfectly just that the Re- 
publicans should come in for the vacancies which 
may fall in, until something like an equilibrium 
in office be restored." 

The serious question, however, was not how va- 
cancies should be filled, but how they should be 
created ; whether the gradual operation of deaths, 
resignations, and expirations of terms of office 
should be awaited, or whether numerous removals 
should be made. Jefferson met this problem at 
once, boldly and frankly. Removals " must be 
as few as possible, done gradually, and bottomed 
on some malversation or inherent disqualification." 
One class only of Federalist incumbents and ap- 
pointees was to be cleanly swept away, en masse^ 
and with unquestionable propriety. These were 
" the new appointments which Mr. Adams crowded 
in with whip and spur from the 12th of December, 
when the event of the election was known, and 
consequently that he was making appointments not 
for himself but for his successor, until nine o'clock 



196 THOMAS JEFFERSON 

of the night at twelve o'clock of which he was to 
go out of office. This outrage on decency should 
not have its effect, except in the life appointments ; 
... as to the others I consider the nominations as 
nullities." "Official mal-conduct" was of course 
added as an undeniably proper cause of removal. 
Otherwise " good men, to whom there is no objec- 
tion but a difference of political principle, practiced 
on only as far as the right of a private citizen wiU 
justify, are not proper subjects of removal." The 
only exception which Jefferson was inclined to 
make to this rule was " in the case of attorneys 
and marshals." Since the courts were " decidedly 
Federal and irremovable," he believed " that Re- 
publican attorneys and marshals, being the doors 
of entrance into the courts, are indispensably ne- 
cessary as a shield to the Republican part of our 
fellow citizens which, I believe, is the main body 
of the people." Though it is needless to say that 
the judiciary department was both honest and able, 
yet there was fair ground for a Republican to en- 
tertain this jealousy and distrust towards it. The 
Supreme Court, by virtue of its power to construe 
the new Constitution, was of scarcely less political 
importance than the executive. Yet the judges of 
all the courts of the United States, the district 
attorneys and the marshals, almost to a man, were 
Federalists, and undeniably, also, most of them 
were partisans in their temper. Even a new and 
superfluous body of judges had been recently cre- 
ated by a Federalist Congress, and all the seats 



PRESIDENT : FIRST TERM 197 

had been filled by Mr. Adams with strong friends 
of his own, holding of course by a life tenure. 
Very properly this extra bench was abolished by 
the Republican Congress shortly after Mr. Jeffer- 
son's accession. But the other courts could not be 
abolished with equal propriety, and the attorney- 
ships and marshalships could only be emptied by 
removals. There was abundant justification for 
Jefferson's assertion that the Republican party 
ought to have some foothold in the great and om- 
nipresent department of justice. The desire to 
base removals upon official misconduct doubtless 
induced an extreme readiness to believe vague and 
doubtful charges, such, for example, as the common 
one of " packing juries ; " but this signified only a 
wish to throw a cloak of decency about a transac- 
tion not substantially blameworthy. 

Upon such principles concei'ning offices did Jef- 
ferson start, principles which he not only professed 
in words but carried out in practice. In time, as 
he came to feel a little more accustomed to exercise 
power, and perhaps a trifle weary of resisting im- 
portunities, he modified his views a little, but only 
a little, for the worse. His real kindness of heart 
made it always disagreeable to him to turn any 
one out of office ; he spoke of it as " a dreadful 
operation to perform," a " painful operation." He 
suspected that " the heaping of abuse on me per- 
sonally has been with the design and the hope of 
provoking me to make a general sweep of all Fed- 
eralists out of office," to the end that thus he might 



198 THOMAS JEFFERSON 

be rendered unpopular and the Federalist party 
regain through persecution the consolidation which 
it was so rapidly losing. " But," he said, " as 1 
have carried no passion into the execution of thi& 
disagreeable duty, I shall suffer none to be excited." 
After he had been somewhat more than two years 
in office, he wrote : " Some removals, to wit, six- 
teen, to the end of our first session of Congress, 
were made on political principles alone, in very 
urgent cases ; and we determined to make no more 
but for delinquency or active and bitter opposition 
to the order of things which the public will had 
established. On this last ground nine were re- 
moved from the end of the first to the end of the 
second session of Congress ; and one since that. 
So that sixteen [twenty-six ? ] only have been re- 
moved in the whole for political principles, that 
is to say, to make room for some participation 
for the Republicans." On May 30, 1804, he was 
willing to state as a cause for removal, " that the 
patronage of public offices should no longer be 
confided to one who uses it for active opposition 
to the national will," which, of course, was only a 
clever way of describing hostility to the dominant 
party. Yet it must be admitted that Jefferson 
never drifted far from the honorable doctrines 
which he first proclaimed, and that he showed great 
courage and honesty in permitting their offices to 
be retained by the mass of incumbents belonging 
to a party which had rigidly proscribed Kepubli- 
cans. Had positions been reversed, it is rather to 



PRESIDENT: FIRST TERM 199 

be hoped than asserted that a Federalist president 
would have emulated this conduct of the Repub- 
lican leader. Among the removals which Jefferson 
did make was that of John Quincy Adams from 
the place of commissioner of bankruptcy at Boston. 
The Federalists regarded this as a very petty man- 
ifestation of personal malice ; but Jefferson after- 
ward, in a letter to Mrs. John Adams, apparently 
in reply to her reproaches, declared that he was 
ignorant that Mr. Adams held the position when 
he caused the place to be vacated. 

In the important and very difficult matter of 
selecting appointees President Jefferson acted 
with painstaking conscientiousness. " There is 
nothing," he said, " that I am so anxious about as 
good nominations." " No duty ... is more diffi- 
cult to fulfill. The knowledge of characters pos- 
sessed by a single individual is, of necessity, 
limited." Accordingly he begs friends in whom 
he can trust to aid him with information. Some- 
times, though apparently very seldom, he made 
mistakes. He was severely attacked for giving 
the coUectorship of New Haven to one Samuel 
Bishop, who was said to be grossly incapacitated 
by old age ; but he defended the appointment with 
very plausible justifications. We never find him 
treating past political services as a recommenda- 
tion to office, and he rigorously condemned any 
active interference in politics by the incumbents 
of federal offices. February 2, 1801, he wrote ; 
" One thing I will say, that as to the future, inter 



200 THOMAS JEFFERSON 

ferences with elections, whether of the state or 
general government, by officers of the latter, 
should be deemed cause for removal ; because the 
constitutional remedy by the elective principle be- 
comes nothing, if it may be smothered by the 
enormous patronage of the federal government." 
He afterward treated " electioneering activity, and 
open and industrious opposition to the principles 
of the present government," as among the proper 
causes for removing Federalists from office. But 
the rules which he enforced against Federalist 
placemen he laid down equally against Republican 
incumbents, and carried into effect as far probably 
as could be fairly expected. In September, 1804, 
he notified the secretary of the treasury that " the 
officers of the federal government are meddling 
too much with the public elections. Will it be 
best to admonish them privately or by proclama- 
tion ? This for consideration till we meet." 

The Federalist newspapers were far from re- 
ciprocating the generosity displayed by Jefferson 
towards the office-holders of their party. It is to 
this period that the pitiful story of Callender's 
malicious defamation belongs. This miserable fel- 
low was a Scotchman by birth, but had been com- 
pelled to seek refuge in this country in order to 
escape prosecution for the contents of a pamphlet 
which he had written concerning "The Political 
Progress of Great Britain." In the United States 
he brought his pen to the service of the Republican 
party. At first Jefferson esteemed him an able 



PRESIDENT: FIRST TERM 201 

and useful writer ; for his assaults, though coarse, 
were forcible ; and he was willing to say vigor- 
ously things which persons of higher position were 
not unwilling to have said by others on their be- 
half. Morally he was a thoroughly low and con- 
temptible creature, utterly devoid of any restraints 
of honor or decency. It was he who first got upon 
the scent of Hamilton's amour with Mrs. Rey- 
nolds, and at once published the evidence which 
he had dishonorably secured ; and it was he who 
wrote the most infamous of those attacks upon 
Washington which were, in the opinion not only 
of contemporaries but of posterity, the preemi- 
nently unjustifiable and unpardonable offense of 
the new party. As his scurrility increased, his 
ability diminished ; while of discretion he was 
utterly void. Soon his diatribes degenerated to 
the low level to be expected from a political hack- 
writer who was also an habitual drunkard. Jeffer- 
son, according to his own account, became heartily 
disgusted with a protege who had become mis- 
chievous as well as repidsive, and would have 
given more to stop so impious a pen than to keep 
it moving. Yet, whether from softness of heart, 
as he protested, or from a secret gratification at 
the work Callender was doing, as the Federalists 
charged, Jefferson continued from time to time 
to assist the wretch with small sums of money. 

Under Adams's administration Callender had the 
good fortune to become a martyr, being one of half 
a dozen defendants who were found guilty, impris* 



202 THOMAS JEFFERSON 

oned, and fined under the Sedition law. Jefferson, 
as soon as he came into office, remitted the short 
remainder of the term of imprisonment, and caused 
the fine to be repaid, " by a somewhat doubtful exer- 
cise of power," as the Federalists very properly said. 
But Jefferson considered the Sedition law " to be a 
nullity, as absolute and as palpable as if Congress 
had ordered us to fall down and worship a golden 
image ; and that it was as much [his] duty to 
arrest its execution in every stage as it would have 
been to have rescued from the fiery furnace those 
who should have been cast into it for refusing to 
worship the image." Despite his dread of embroil- 
ments, Jefferson never shirked the responsibilities 
imposed upon him by such strong convictions; and 
Callender now had the advantage of the President's 
courage, as before of his liberality. But a nature 
more greedy than grateful only hungered for ad- 
ditional favors. The liberated man hastened to 
urge the President to remove the postmaster at 
Richmond and give him the office. The postmaster 
was a Federalist editor, but Jefferson very honor- 
ably refused to displace him. For this behavior he 
speedily suffered in a fashion which certainly hardly 
encourages men in public life to be scrupulously 
upright. Callender immediately allied himself 
with the editorial staff of the Richmond " Re- 
corder," and filled that paper, day after day, with 
countless stories — partly his own, partly contrib- 
uted by others — derogatory to Jefferson. The 
Bheet, hitherto a petty local publication, quickly 



PRESIDENT: FIRST TERM 203 

found its way to the remotest corners of the coun- 
try ; for Callender's characteristic onslaught was 
of the most ignoble, but certainly of the most 
effective, kind. He charged Jefferson with hav- 
ing been his friend and financial assistant, and his 
confederate in the libels upon Washington ; but 
his chief topic was Jefferson's private life, and his 
many tales were scandalous and revolting to the 
last degree. Naturally these slanders will not bear 
repetition here ; for they were worse than mere 
charges of simple amours. Ai)art from the fact 
that no decent man would have wished to dip his 
hands in such filth, one would think that the trans- 
action which had instigated Callender to this con- 
duct would have induced any Federalist editor of 
moderately good feeling to discountenance so base 
a revenge. At least these gentlemen might have 
remembered that they had lately stigmatized Cal- 
lender as a low and untrustworthy liar, when Ham- 
ilton and Washington had been his victims. But, 
to the discredit of the journalists of that period, it 
must be confessed that their conduct was contrary 
both to gratitude and to decency. Every Federalist 
writer hastened to draw for his own use bucketful 
after bucketful from Callender's foul reservoir, and 
the gossip about Jefferson's graceless debaucheries 
was sent into every household in the United States. 
Jefferson never undertook to deny any of these 
narratives ; and Federalist historians, from whom 
a fairer judgment might have been expected, have 
seen fit to treat this silence as evidence of guilt. 



204 THOMAS JEFFERSON 

Obviously it was not so. The President of the 
United States could hardly stoop to give the lie 
to a fellow like Callender, especially in such a de- 
partment of calumny. It would be pleasanter for 
us also to have ignored the matter ; but this was 
scarcely possible, since the charges gravely affected 
Jefferson's happiness and reputation at the time, 
and have ever since been repeated to his discredit 
by writers upon that period. He will probably 
always be thought of as a man who carried licen- 
tiousness far beyond the limit which a grateful 
nation has tried hard to condone in the cases of 
Franklin, Hamilton, and many another among the 
sages and patriots even of those virtuous and simple 
days. Nevertheless there is no sufficient and un- 
questionable proof that Jefferson was one whit 
worse than the majority of his compeers. Nor is 
it probable that any one would ever have thought 
him so, if he could have brought himself to make 
a political removal and appointment such as in our 
own days would be regarded as matter of course. 



CHAPTER XIV 

PRESIDENT : FIRST TERM. — LOUISIANA 

Jefferson had a fair measure of respect for the 
Constitution, — perhaps a little more than is ordi- 
narily felt towards a common statute. He was far 
from regarding it with a blind homage, as if it 
were the sacred principle of the national life. This 
was not alone attributable to the facts that tradi- 
tion had not yet lent to it a sort of consecration, 
and that prosperity beneath it had not endured 
long enough to give it a reputation; the feeling 
was more largely due to Jefferson's abstract views 
concerning government. A constitution might too 
often have the effect of fetters upon the nation 
The will of the people, which had made the Con- 
stitution, might at any time modify or abrogate it. 
That will ought to be the ultimate rule of decision 
in any matter sufficiently momentous to justify an 
appeal to it. Therefore, if the will of the people 
was with him in an unconstitutional policy which 
he believed to be sound, Jefferson did not hesitate 
to speak respectfully of the Constitution, and to 
disregard it. Perhaps he is the only President of 
the United States who has ever avowedly and with 
premeditation carried through an important extra- 



206 THOMAS JEFFERSON 

constitutional measure, relying for justification 
simply upon the wisdom of the act and the wish 
of the nation. Such was the real character of his 
purchase of Louisiana. 

From the first moment, many years before the 
time with which we are now dealing, when his at- 
tention had been called to the rights of the United 
States concerning the Mississippi River, Jefferson 
had been fully alive to their vast importance. In- 
deed his estimate of the probable traffic upon that 
stream, and the consequent growth of New Orleans 
as a commercial metropolis, has since appeared ex- 
aggerated, at least in comparison with the propor- 
tionate growth of the rest of the country. In the 
Bummer of 1790 a rupture between England and 
Spain seemed imminent, and Jefferson promptly 
made ready to seize the opportune moment for 
compelling a settlement of the open question of 
navigation. Spain owned both sides of the mouth 
of the river ; but the United States had always 
asserted that this ownership gave the Spaniards 
no right to close the stream to the free passage of 
American vessels. In August, 1790, Jefferson, 
being then secretary of state, wrote a vigorous let- 
ter to Carmichael, the representative of the United 
States at the court of Madrid. He directed that 
gentleman to impress the Spanish minister " thor- 
oughly with the necessity of an early and even an 
immediate settlement of this matter ; " though " a 
resumption of the negotiation is not desired on our 
part, unless he can determine, in the opening of it, 



PRESIDENT: FIRST TERM 207 

to yield the immediate and full enjoyment of ttat 
navigation." But if this point was to be yielded 
in the outset, what further subject for negotiation 
remained ? Jefferson boldly said that this further 
subject was " a port, where the sea and river ves- 
sels may meet and exchange loads, and where those 
employed about them may be safe and unmolested." 
There must be no dallying about this business, he 
added, since " it is impossible to answer for the for- 
bearance of our Western citizens. We endeavor 
to quiet them with an expectation of an attainment 
of their ends by peaceable means. But should 
they, in a moment of impatience, hazard others, there 
is no saying how far we may be led ; for neither 
themselves nor their rights will ever be abandoned 
by us." 

With an admirable zeal and persistence Jeffer- 
son pushed this demand for many months. He rap- 
idly developed his notion concerning the port ; he 
declared the obvious necessity that it should " be so 
well separated from the territories of Spain and her 
jurisdiction as not to engender daily disputes and 
broils between us," such as must inevitably " end 
in war." " Nature," he then cleverly added, " has 
decided what shall be the geography of that in the 
end, whatever it might be in the beginning, by cut- 
ting off from the adjacent countries of Florida and 
Louisiana, and inclosing between two of its chan- 
nels, a long and narrow slip of land, called the 
Island of New Orleans." He admitted that this 
audacious proposition "could not be hazarded to 



208 THOMAS JEFFERSON 

Spain in the first step ; it would be too disagree- 
able at first view; because this island, with its 
town, constitutes at present their principal settle- 
ment in that part of their dominions." But he 
cheerfully reflected that " reason and events may 
by little and little familiarize them to it." He was 
right ; in due time " reason and events," having 
had the way opened for them by the diplomatic 
skill and pertinacity of the secretary of state, did 
familiarize the Spanish court with this " idea." 
The right of navigation was conceded by the treaty 
of 1795, and with it a right to the free use of the 
port of New Orleans upon reasonably satisfactory 
terms for a period of three years, and thereaf ter- 
ward until some other equally convenient harbor 
should be allotted. The credit of this ultimate 
achievement was Mr. Jefferson's, and not the less 
so because the treaty was not signed until he had 
retired from office. It was really his statesman- 
ship which had secured it, not only in spite of the 
natural repugnance of Spain, but also in spite of 
the obstacles indirectly thrown in his way in the 
earlier stages by many persons in the United 
States, who privately gave the Spanish minister to 
understand that the country cared little about the 
Mississippi, and would not support the secretary 
in his demands. 

It is curious to note that in the course of this 
business there was already a faint foreshadowing 
of that principle which many years afterwards 
was christened with the name of Monroe. For a 



PRESIDENT: FIRST TERM 209 

brief time it was thought, not without reason, that 
so soon as hostilities should break out between 
England and Spain, the former power would seize 
upon the North American possessions of the latter. 
Jefferson wrote to Gouverneur Morris : " We wish 
you, therefore, to intimate to them [the British 
ministry] that we cannot be indifferent to enter- 
prises of this kind. That we shovdd contemplate 
a change of neighbors with extreme uneasiness. 
That a due balance on our borders is not less de- 
sirable to us than a balance of power in Europe 
has always appeared to them." 

The arrangements at last consummated in 1795 
remained in force, working fairly well, for many 
years. But the wiser men in the United States 
were not so much satisfied as they were biding 
their time to get a more permanent foothold. In 
1802-3 the opportunity came, certainly by a very 
peculiar introduction. So early as 1790 there had 
been suspicions that France would like to regain 
her possessions on the Gulf of Mexico. Thus at 
that time Jefferson, though seeking French aid to 
assist him in enforcing the demands of the United 
States against Spain, had been afraid to expose 
the full extent of his designs ; for, he said, " it is 
believed here that the Count de Moustier, during 
his residence with us, conceived the project of again 
engaging France in a colony upon our continent, 
and that he directed his views to some of the coun- 
try on the Mississippi, and obtained and commu- 
nicated a good deal of matter on the subject to 



210 THOMAS JEFFERSON 

his court." For some years afterward the project 
slept, but rumors of like purport started into fresh 
life early in 1800. Apparently these gave at first 
little serious uneasiness, though later in the year 
instructions were sent to the American ministers 
at London, Paris, and Madrid to do all in their 
power to prevent any cession of territory by Spain 
to France. Interference, however, came too late. 
Before the instructions reached our ministers the 
deed had been done. On October 1, 1800, Spain 
ceded all Louisiana to France. The treaty, how- 
ever, was kept secret for a while, so that not until 
the spring of 1802 did it become really known in 
the United States as an assured fact. Jefferson 
then was profoundly chagrined. He appreciated 
more fully than any other public man of the day 
the immeasurable value of that region to the 
States ; and he was proportionately disturbed to 
see it pass from weak into strong hands. 

The vexation felt by Jefferson, in his public 
capacity, might have been partially allayed by a 
consolation afforded to him as an individual. For 
the situation at least gave him an opportunity to 
clear his character from the aspersions of those 
Federalists who had so bitterly accused him of 
loving France better than his native land. No 
sooner did he conceive that the interests of the 
two peoples menaced even a future clashing, than 
he showed himself thoroughly and zealously Ameri- 
can. Instantly his French sympathy dwindled into 
a feeble expression of regret that France should 



PRESIDENT: FIRST TERM 211 

be transformed from a " natural friend " Into a 
" natural enemy ; " for this, he said, was the in- 
evitable consequence of what had occurred. April 
18, 1802, he wrote to Robert E.. Livingston, min- 
ister at Paris : — 

" The cession of Louisiana and the Floridas by Spain 
to France works most sorely on the United States. On 
this subject the secretary of state has written to you 
fully, yet I cannot forbear recurring to it personally, so 
deep is the impression it makes on my mind. It com- 
pletely reverses all the political relations of the United 
States. . . . There is on the globe one single spot, the 
possessor of which is our natural and habitual enemy. 
It is New Orleans. ... It is impossible that France 
and the United States can continue long friends, when 
they meet in so irritable a position. . . . We must be 
very improvident if we do not begin to make arrange- 
ments on that hypothesis. The day that France takes 
possession of New Orleans fixes the sentence which is to 
restrain her forever within her low-water mark. It 
seals the union of two nations, who, in conjunction, can 
maintain exclusive possession of the ocean. From that 
moment we must marry ourselves to the British fleet 
and nation." 

One almost discredits his own senses as he be- 
holds Jefferson voluntarily proclaiming the banns 
for these nuptials, which during so many years past 
would have seemed to him worse than illicit. Yet 
he was never more in earnest, and betrays a strik- 
ing solemnity and depth of feeling throughout his 
letter, while obviously writing under the influence 



212 THOMAS JEFFERSON 

of an unusual excitement. Yet even beneath dis* 
appointment he was sanguine, and amid indigna- 
tion he was diplomatic. " I should suppose," he 
says, " that all th/ese considerations might, in some 
proper form, be brought into view of the govern- 
ment of France. Though stated by us it ought 
not to give offense, because we do not bring them 
forward as a menace, but as consequences not con- 
trollable by us, but inevitable from the course of 
things." As usual he turns to time as his most 
efficient ally. The French troops, he says, are to 
subdue St. Domingo before they cross to receive 
delivery of Louisiana ; and he complacently adds, 
" the conquest of St, Domingo will not be a short 
work. It will take considerable time and wear 
down a great number of soldiers." This interval 
he hopes to employ well in working upon the 
French government. 

But an untoward event, occurring a few months 
after the receipt of news of the cession, was near 
robbing Mr. Jefferson even of such slight possi- 
bilities as might be contained in this interval. At 
this most inopportune moment, in October, 1802, 
the Spanish intendant at New Orleans issued an 
edict, in direct contravention of treaty stipulations, 
cutting short the American privilege of deposit at 
that port. At once the hot spirit of the Western 
country was in a wild blaze. Those pioneers who 
kept their rifles over their fireplaces or behind their 
front doors ready to shoot a catamount, an Indian, 
or each other, at a moment's notice, now talked 



PRESIDENT: FIRST TERM 213 

fiercely of marching straight into New Orleans, and 
making a prompt settlement with powder and lead. 
Jefferson was much disturbed by demonstrations 
which threatened serious interference with a plan 
which he had conceived. War he rightly deemed 
the last resource. A display of warlike spirit 
might be useful to emphasize his diplomacy ; but 
he was alarmed at the prospect of this temper 
really bursting into action. Yet he sympathized 
with the Western men in their wrath, and bore 
them no grudge, though they seemed so likely to 
derange his schemes by their uncontrollable zeal. 

The persons with whom the President was really 
vexed, and fairly enough too, it must be confessed, 
were the Federalists. The remnant of this party 
now for an instant imagined that they saw a chance 
of being borne again into power by hostilities with 
France. Careless of the interests of the country 
as against the interests of party, they became clam- 
orous for immediate war. Jefferson well described 
the situation, January 13, 1803 : — 

" The agitation of the public mind ... is extreme. 
In the Western country it is natural, and grounded on 
honest motives. In the seaports it proceeds from a de- 
sire for war, which increases the mercantile lottery ; in 
the Federalists generally, and especially those of Con- 
gress, the object is to force us into war if possible, in 
order to derange our finances ; or, if this cannot be 
done, to attach the Western country to them, as their 
best friends, and thus get again into power. Remon- 
strances, memorials, etc., are now circulating through 



214 THOMAS JEFFERSON 

the whole of the Western country, and signed by the 
body of the people." 

But the small and embittered faction into which 
the Federalist party had rapidly degenerated could 
not beat JefPerson, intrenched in the confidence of 
the nation, and backed by a handsome majority in 
Congress. 

In the House of Representatives this majority 
was imperiously led by John Randolph, whose faith 
in Jefferson was still blindly implicit. In the lat- 
ter part of 1802 he carried the House into secret 
session, against vehement opposition from the Fed- 
eralists, in order to give the President an opportu- 
nity for making certain private communications, 
and obtaining legislation thereon. Precisely what 
took place behind the closed doors was never fully 
divulged ; but the substance of the whole work 
done publicly and privately during a few weeks 
of that winter was thorouglily satisfactory to the 
executive. Many resolutions offered by the Fed- 
eralists, designed at once to obstruct a peaceable 
settlement and to win the allegiance of the West 
by a show of angry zeal, were voted down by loyal 
majorities. Finally, the management of the whole 
business was left to the President, who was further 
provided with the sum of two million dollars, to be 
used as he should see fit. 

Jefferson's plans were by this time well under- 
stood to be the purchase of New Orleans, and prob- 
ably also something more on the east side of the 
river. He had early adopted this scheme, justly 



PRESIDENT: FIRST TERM 215 

thinking that it would be cheaper, wiser, more hu- 
mane, in every way more becoming a civilized and 
mercantile people, to buy the fee of such territory 
as they needed, rather than to engage in a war 
simply for the purpose of establishing an easement 
in an island. The two million dollars were required 
to pave the way ; in other words, to bribe some of 
the more influential among those virtuous legislators 
who had succeeded the wicked monarchs of France. 
Jefferson had already taken initial steps towards 
this bargain through Livingston at Paris. But 
that minister, before he had learned the executive 
purpose, had unfortunately expressed very different 
views of his own. He had told the French gov- 
ernment that the United States cared not at all 
whether their neighbor at the mouth of the Missis- 
sippi was to be France or Spain, provided the right 
of navigation and privileges of deposit should not 
be interfered with. After correction, indeed, he 
began to discuss a purchase, and in time would 
probably have concluded it ; but Jefferson, for 
many reasons, chose to send a special emissary. 
Apart from the point of sympathetic conviction, it 
was desirable to make a show of energy before the 
West and the Federalists, who had little confidence 
in Livingston. Further, it was an uncomfortable 
task to put into the dangerous black and white 
of diplomatic instructions all which the President 
wished to say. He accordingly bethought him 
of Monroe, whose term as governor of Virginia 
had just expired, and on February 11, 1803, he 



216 THOMAS JEFFERSON 

nominated that gentleman envoy-extraordinary to 
France. The nomination was promptly confirmed, 
in spite of the malicious suggestion of the Federal- 
ists, who averred that it was made only to provide 
a place for a personal and political friend, who was 
in financial difficulties. In sundry interviews with 
Jefferson, Monroe became fully informed as to the 
President's projects, and departed on his delicate 
errand apparently without a word in writing upon 
which he could rely, should his principal choose 
later to disavow his doings. But Jefferson's 
friends always trusted him. 

At this same point in the business Jefferson 
manifested a mercantile cleverness of which any 
tradesman might have been proud. He wrote to 
Dupont de Nemours, urging him to smooth the 
way towards settlement, and throwing out divers 
shrewd suggestions : — 

" Our circumstances are so imperious as to admit of 
no delay as to our course ; and the use of the Mississippi 
is so indispensable that we cannot hesitate one moment 
to hazard our existence for its maintenance." This for 
a timely hint of the " dernier ressort." Then he adds : 
" It may be said, if this object be so all-important to us, 
why do we not offer such a sum as to insure its pur- 
chase ? The answer is simple. We are an agricultural 
people, poor in money and owing great debts. These 
will be falling due by instalments for fifteen years to 
come, and require from us the practice of a rigorous 
economy to accomplish their payment ; and it is our 
principle to pay to a moment whatever we have en- 



PRESIDENT: FIRST TERM 217 

gaged, and never to engage what we cannot and mean 
not faithfully to pay. We have calculated our resources, 
and find the sum to be moderate which they would en- 
able us to pay, and we know from late trials that httle 
can be added to it by borrowing. The country, too, 
which we wish to purchase, ... is a barren sand. . . . 
"We cannot, then, make anything by a sale of the land to 
individuals. So that it is peace alone which makes it an 
object with us, and which ought to make the cession of 
it desirable to France." 

Could a Jew or an attorney drive a bargain 
more skillfully? A willing but very poor pur- 
chaser, absolutely sure to pay his notes at matur- 
ity, shunning discord rather than seeking profit ; 
indirect but valuable advantages to accrue to the 
seller from the sale, in addition to the price ; an 
unmarketable piece of property ; a misty vision of 
war in the background! Yet, in spite of such 
plausible persuasions, it is not probable that Mon- 
roe would have had much success in his negotia- 
tions, had not European politics come opportunely 
to his aid. Napoleon, who already exercised the 
powers of an emperor under the title of First Con- 
sul, had set his heart upon establishing a great 
French colony on the North American continent. 
Under this impulse he had laughed to scorn the 
first proposals for a purchase of his territory. It 
would have been easier for Monroe to buy up his 
advisers than for those advisers to induce him to 
abandon a favorite whim. Neither was there much 
use in threatening the conqueror of Europe with 



218 THOMAS JEFFERSON 

the wrath of our trans- Alleghan Ian population. 
But as Jefferson's usual good fortune arranged it, 
by the time Monroe arrived the short-lived peace 
of Amiens was obviously about to be broken. On 
the verge of extensive military operations Napo- 
leon forgot his colonial schemes. In the contem- 
plation of a hungry treasury he became as eager 
to sell as the envoys were to buy. Monroe's in- 
structions had contemplated only a moderate pur- 
chase, of the island and some land upon the 
easterly side of the river, nothing more being 
thought possible. But Napoleon's notion now was 
to turn his most available assets into money with 
all speed. He intimated that he would sell all 
Louisiana. He asked, indeed, a great price ; but 
where both parties are eager, trading is usually 
rapid. Monroe had gauged Jefferson's views with 
perfect accuracy, and felt no fear. In a few days 
he and Livingston closed the bargain, buying 
Louisiana outright for sixty million livres, with 
the stipulation that the United States should pay 
sundry claims of its merchants against France to 
the amount of twenty million livres more, and that 
certain privileges should be allowed to French and 
Spanish vessels in the port of New Orleans for 
twelve years to come. 

In their dispatches, communicating this treaty, 
the envoys acknowledged that they had exceeded 
their instructions, and humbly hoped that they 
had not erred. This was literally true, but it was 
only the letter not the spirit of their instructions 



PRESIDENT: FIRST TERM 219 

whicli liad been overstepped. Monroe well knew 
ihat he had only fulfilled Jefferson's real wishes. 
But since this was not apparent on the surface, the 
Federalists afterward pretended to regard these 
professions of the negotiators as indicating that 
any credit there might be in the purchase was due 
to them rather than to the President. This, how- 
ever, was an unfair artifice, which at best could 
amount to nothing more than saying that the 
presidential policy had succeeded even beyond the 
hopes of its projector. The entire credit — or dis- 
credit, if such there were — of the achievement 
belonged exclusively to Jefferson. 

Of course fault-finding began at once. No great 
ingenuity was needed on the part of the opposition 
to devise the gravest objections to the transaction 
both as a whole and in detail. The government 
was without constitutional authority to make the 
purchase upon terms which substantially involved 
the speedy admission of the purchased territory, 
in the shape of new States, to the Union. It was 
directly contrary to the Constitution to grant pe- 
culiar privileges in the port of New Orleans to 
Spanish and French commerce. The boundaries 
of Louisiana, both upon the east and upon the 
west, were in dispute, and in time would probably 
have to be settled by a war. Spain had insisted 
as a condition of her own transfer that France 
should not sell ; Spain was still in possession, and 
might now well be expected to decline to part with 
the property. These criticisms each and all were 



220 THOMAS JEFFERSON 

perfectly true ; yet they were certainly each and 
all of very little consequence, when set against an 
acquisition so enormously valuable in so many dif- 
ferent ways to the United States. The practical 
objections Jefferson met by practical suggestions. 
The boundaries were doubtful, but boundaries in 
wild lands constantly remain doubtful for many 
years without engendering serious hostilities. In 
this interval, the natural growth of the United 
States and the inevitable decadence of Spain upon 
this continent would ultimately insure a peaceful 
yielding to American demands. A little later he 
proposed, in pursuance of this view, that the gov- 
ernment should offer bounties to attract a large 
body of vigorous and intelligent American colo- 
nists into Louisiana, to the end that a population of 
such numbers, character, and national sympathies 
should be established in that quarter as would dis- 
courage contumacious neighbors. It would have 
been better, some said, to have bought the Floridas 
rather than Louisiana. But could not another 
purchase be made? The American claims of 
boundary 

" will be a subject of negotiation with Spain, and if, 
as soon as she is at war, we push them strongly with 
one hand, holding out a price in the other, we shall cer-" 
tainly obtain the Floridas, and all in good time. . . . 
Propositions are made to exchange Louisiana, or a part 
of it, for the Floridas. But, as I have said, we shall 
get the Floridas without ; and I would not give one inch 
of the waters of the Mississippi to any nation, because I 



PRESIDENT: FIRST TERM 221 

see in a light very important to our peace the exclusive 
right to its navigation, and the admission of no nation 
into it but as into the Potomac or Delaware, with our 
consent and under our police." 

Time proved the perfect truth of all this. 

As for the chance of Spain refusing to deliver 
possession to the United States, Jefferson intended 
to have no trifling in that matter. So soon as the 
treaty was ratified he 

*' sent ofp orders to the Governor of the Mississippi 
territory and General Wilkinson to move down with the 
troops at hand to New Orleans, and receive possession 
from M. Laussat. If he is heartily disposed to carry 
the order of the Consul into execution, he can probably 
command a volunteer force at New Orleans, and will 
have the aid of ours also, if he desires it, to take the 
possession and deliver it to us. If he is not so disposed, 
we shall take the possession, and it will rest with the 
government of France, by adopting the act as their own 
and obtaining the confirmation of Spain, to supply the 
non-execution of their agreement to deliver and to en- 
title themselves to the complete execution of our part of 
the agreements." 

For the other objections of law and theory, Jef- 
ferson was inclined to override them very cava- 
lierly. In truth it was the only way. It was not 
worth while to enter into a debate, predestined to 
obvious defeat, nor to engage in argument when 
the whole weight of logic rested with the other 
side. The prompt vote of a silent majority was 
the best policy. " The less that is said about any 



222 THOMAS JEFFERSON 

constitutional difficulty, the better ; ... it will be 
desirable for Congress to do what is necessary in 
silence." " Whatever Congress shall think it ne- 
cessary to do, should be done with as little debate 
as possible, and particularly so far as respects the 
constitutional difficulty." Thus Jefferson wrote. 
The opposition, on the other hand, tried hard to 
force a prolonged discussion, but with slender ef- 
fect. The outnumbering' administrationists cared 
not to hear long lectures, designed to show only 
that a wise act, which they had already determined 
to do, was against the law. So the Federalist 
speeches, though calling forth only a few replies 
and certainly no answers, went for nothing. In 
•the Senate a powerful and delighted Republican 
majority hastened to ratify the treaty by a vote of 
twenty-four to seven, — ten votes more than were 
necessary, as Jefferson triumphantly noted. In 
the House of Representatives the overwhelming 
ranks of the same party, under the spirited leader- 
ship of Randolph, first made the necessary appro- 
priations, and then provided temporarily for the 
government of the territory by the President, even 
giving him for the time all the powers of the late 
Spanish monarchs, an odd position for Jefferson, 
truly, but which he did not reject. 

Thus did Jefferson accomplish a most momen- 
tous transaction in direct contravention of all those 
grand principles which for many years he had 
been eloquently preaching as the political faith of 
the great party which he had formed and led. 



PRESIDENT: FIRST TERM 223 

W^hat henceforth could he and his followers say 
about Washington's aristocratic ceremonial at his 
levees ; what about Hamilton's establishment of a 
United States Bank ; what about all the alleged 
twistings and wrenchings of the Constitution by 
the free-constructionists and the " monarchists " ? 
Here was an act, done by the great Republican 
doctrinaire president, utterly beyond the Constitu- 
tion in substance and contrary to it in detail ; 
monarchical beyond what any " monocrat " had 
ever dared to dream of. There was no denying 
these facts, at least without self-stultification. 
John Randolph, dictating to his great majority in 
the House, became ridiculous when he endeavored 
to reconcile the treaty with the organic charter of 
the United States. The plain truth was that Jef- 
ferson had simply shattered into fragments his 
previous theories, and every one in the United 
States saw and knew it. In August, 1800, he had 
declared that " the true theory of our Constitution 
is surely the wisest and best ; that the States are 
independent as to everything within themselves, 
and united as to everything respecting foreign na- 
tions." By this theory " our general government 
may be reduced to a very simple organization and 
a very inexpensive one ; a few plain duties to be 
performed by a few servants." The doctrine of a 
simple league of independent powers, devised only 
for the specific purpose of foreign intercourse, 
could not have been better set forth. Yet it was 
hardly possibly to imagine a transaction more at 



224 THOMAS JEFFERSON 

variance with the principle of such a league than 
was this purchase of an enormous property for the 
common tenancy and at the common charge of the 
political partnership. It produced a welding and 
unifying of domestic interests to as great an ex- 
tent as an isolated act could do. 

Still more surprising is it to remember that 
Jefferson was the chief expositor of states' rights. 
He declares them in the foregoing sentences ; he 
had declared them again and again, in public and 
private, directly and indirectly. He was the au- 
thor of the Kentucky resolutions. But the justifi- 
cation upon which he had relied to sustain nullifi- 
cation and secession by Kentucky was as nothing 
compared to the justification which he himself, by 
this purchase, now created for nullification and 
secession on the part of the dissatisfied Eastern 
States. The Constitution, he had always insisted, 
was a contract between independent parties, not 
binding upon any one of them beyond its distinct 
stipulations. It was not among those stipulations 
that a majority might purchase new territory, and 
out of it create and admit new parties to the con- 
tract. It was the inevitable outcome of his own 
logic that any State might now lawfully withdraw 
from the league upon this opportunity which he 
himself had furnished. 

Yet by a singular inconsistency, which, perhaps, 
ha did not appreciate, he managed to reiterate his 
old principles, even while he stood among the very 
ruins into which he had prostrated them. He 



PRESIDENT: FIRST TERM 226 

actually seized this extraordinary moment for an 
extreme assertion of the doctrine of states' rights, 
accompanied by some of that mawkish sentimental- 
ity and political rubbish which so constantly excite 
a revulsion of feeling when one most wishes to ad- 
mire him. The Federalists, he says, " see in this 
acquisition the formation of a new confederacy, 
embracing all the waters of the Mississippi, on 
both sides of it, and a separation of its eastern 
waters from us." This result he thinks improb- 
able. But the possibility of its happening does 
not appear to him an argument against that pur- 
chase which may promote it. For "the future 
inhabitants of the Atlantic and Mississippi States 
will be our sons. We leave them in distinct but 
bordering establishments ; we think we see their 
happiness in their union, and we wish it. Events 
may prove it otherwise ; and if they see their inter- 
est in separation, why should we take sides with 
our Atlantic rather than our Mississippi descend- 
ants ? It is the elder and the younger son differ- 
ing. God biess them both, and keep them in 
union, if it be for their good, but separate them 
if it be better." This is the piety of states' rights 
and the statesmanship of secession, very plausibly 
put under the peculiar circumstances. He reiter- 
ated it again with something less of holiness in his 
language about six months later. " Whether we 
remain one confederacy, or form into Atlantic and 
Mississippi confederacies, I believe not very impor- 
tant to the happiness of either part. Those of the 



226 THOMAS JEFFERSON 

western confederacy will be as mucli our children 
and descendants as those of the eastern," etc. It 
is inevitable that one pauses a moment to specu- 
late upon the problem : what gospel Jefferson would 
have preached to the people in 1861. Would he 
have been among those whose text was "Let them 
go in peace " ? Probably not, for he would have 
preferred inconsistency to unpopularity. 

Yet these matters of argument and logic, theory 
and consistency, may easily be dwelt upon imf airly. 
For every one must admit that the government 
ought to have bought Louisiana, and must equally 
admit that the propriety of the purchase did not 
alone suffice to annihilate all those broad political 
theories of the Republican party which would have 
forbidden it. It was simply a proper case for break- 
ing a rule without discrediting it, a case which 
will occur under any and all rules. So far as Jef- 
ferson personally was concerned, Destiny, that god- 
dess who loves nothing so much as irony, had led 
him to the point to which she so often leads the 
profoundest statesmen and the wisest philosophers, 
the point where the choice must be made betwixt 
a sound abstract doctrine and a sensible act incon- 
sistent therewith. In the dilemma Jefferson did 
what all really great statesmen and philosopher? 
always have done and always will do in such an 
emergency ; he turned his back upon the doctrine 
and did the act. He preferred sound sense to 
sound logic, and set intelligent statesmanship above 
political consistency. Of course he laid himself 



TRESIDENT: FIRST TERM 227 

open to reproach and ridicule. Throughout the 
country every Federalist throat sent forth a howl 
of abuse against the democrat who had turned 
autocrat; every Federalist finger was pointed in 
scorn at the strict constructionist who, in an in- 
stant, had thrown overboard the whole Constitu- 
tion. But Jefferson bore these taunts with much 
tranquillity. He could afford to do so. If his po- 
litical philosophy had become somewhat emaciated 
beneath the severe treatment to which he had sub- 
jected it, his popularity as a statesman had waxed 
hugely fat upon the same food. " The treaty," he 
said, " has obtained nearly general approbation. 
The Federalists spoke and voted against it ; but 
they are now so reduced in their numbers as to be 
nothing." Yet he behaved really very well. He 
did not try to carry off his lawlessness with a high 
hand, as the applause of the people might have 
tempted and enabled him to do. He did not en- 
deavor to put upon the transaction any sophistical 
gloss, which his dialectic cleverness would have 
made easy for him, especially in the presence of a 
well-disposed audience. But he frankly acknow- 
ledged that the necessities of the case had com- 
pelled him to do what was unlawful. Abjuring 
such sophistries as the administration party in Con- 
gress had put forth, he honestly said, even while 
the matter was still pending : — 

" The Constitution has made no provision for our 
holding foreign territory, still less for incorporating for- 
eign nations into our Union. The executive, in seizing 



228 THOMAS JEFFERSON 

the fugitive occurrence which so much advances the good 
of their country, has done an act beyond the Constitu- 
tion. The legislature, in casting behind them meta- 
physical subtleties, and risking themselves hke faithful 
servants, must ratify and pay for it, and throw theni- 
Belves on their country for doing for them, unauthorized, 
what we know they would have done for themselves had 
they been in a situation to do it." 

Loath to leave Ms justification solely to the wis- 
dom of his act, he desired to be put, technically, 
in as sound a position as possible. To this end he 
was very anxious that there should be a formal 
ratification by the people in the shape of a consti- 
tutional amendment. He even drew up one, and 
intimated to his friends in the cabinet and in Con- 
gress that he hoped to see it put upon its passage. 
They were less scrupulous than he, and would not 
concern themselves much about it, so that it was 
allowed to drop. Perhaps he was not so urgent in 
pushing the scheme as he might have been; but 
at least he did not disguise his opinions and his 
wishes, which were undeniably correct and becom- 
ing. 

Yet it may be said that in a certain way Jeffer- 
son had been true to his fundamental and grandest 
principles, even in breaking those which were in a 
sense secondary. He believed primarily in the will 
of the people, and sought primarily the good of the 
people. The Constitution commanded his respect, 
because it formally expressed that will and sub- 
stantially advanced that' good. In a peculiar crisis, 



PRESIDENT: FIRST TERM 229 

where this written law seemed to lose these distinc- 
tive characteristics, it seemed also for the time to 
lose much of its title to obedience. It was true he 
had no technical or definite expression of the peo- 
ple's will, but it would have been absurd to pretend 
to doubt that he executed that will in acquiring 
Louisiana upon favorable terms, by, against, or 
outside of the Constitution. If the necessary con- 
stitutional amendment could have been made by an 
immediate popular vote, it would have been accom- 
plished in a week. This is a hazardous doctrine, 
and so was Jefferson's action, though right, a dan- 
gerous precedent. But certainly the history of the 
transaction puts it beyond a question that the 
statesman predominated over the doctrinaire in his 
composition, though his enemies to this day assert 
the contrary. 



CHAPTER XV 

PRESIDENT : FIRST TERM. — IMPEACHMENTS. ■= 
REELECTION 

Jefferson's personal animosities were few. 
They were limited to the small body of supposed 
"monocrats," the New England clergy, and the 
Federalist judges in the courts of the United 
States. In all his preachings of universal bene- 
volence and political brotherhood there must be 
understood a tacit reservation against these three 
classes of the community. Of these the judges 
presented the most definite mark. It has already 
been seen how he felt about the exclusive possession 
of the courts by the Federalists. There is no doubt 
that he wished, if he could not effect a radical 
change in the judicial personnel, at least to give an 
impressive lesson to the life-tenants of the benches. 
The object of his first experiment was skillfully 
selected. He sent to the Representatives a special 
message concerning alleged shortcomings and vices 
of Pickering of New Hampshire, judge of the Dis- 
trict Court. Pickering was at once impeached be- 
fore the Senate by order of the House, was found 
guilty and removed. The Federalist senators stood 
by him gallantly, and voted unanimously for his 



PRESIDENT: FIRST TERM 231 

acquittal. Precisely what were the merits of the 
case, and whether Pickering was not more justly to 
be pitied than censured, it is now difficult to say. 
Certain it is that he has been generally represented 
as a worthless fellow, morally and mentally; yet 
it seems by no means equally certain that he de- 
serves such condemnation. It has been alleged on 
his behalf that he was mentally unbalanced. If 
this was the case, it was his misfortune rather than 
his fault that he furnished an oppportunity too 
happily available for Jefferson's purposes. But, 
whichever way the facts may have been, it is prob- 
able enough that Jefferson himself acted in good 
faith, hearing discreditable tales of his victim, and 
not duly informed as to the true cause.^ 

But this was only light practicing ; much higher 
game was aimed at in the person of Judge Chase 
of Maryland, a justice of the Supreme Court. He 
was of unquestioned integrity and ability ; but he 
was a Federalist of the extreme type, and found 
it as impossible to keep his Federalism out of his 

1 The late Andrew P. Peabody, D. D., professor at Harvard 
University, who was familiar with the local reminiscences and 
traditions concerning the judge, informs me that he was a man of 
excellent character and in the best repute in New Hampshire, 
and that the eccentricities and improprieties which served as the 
basis of his impeachment were only the earlier manifestations of 
a mental aberration which soon afterward developed into unques- 
tionable insanity. Further authorities in favor of the judge may 
be found in, William Plumer's Life of William Plumer, edited 
by Rev. Andrew P. Peabody, Boston, 1857, pp. 272-274 ; and in 
Nathaniel Adams's Annals of Portsmouth, Portsmouth, 1825, pp, 
?32-355. 



232 THOMAS JEFFERSON 

charges to juries as Copperfield says that Mr. Dick 
did to keep King Charles's head out of his memo- 
rials. There is no doubt that he erred gravely in 
this particular, and used his judicial position in a 
manner improper even in those times, and which 
in our day would be deemed intolerable. That he 
was ever led to the commission of an actual in- 
justice does not appear ; and whether his offenses 
against official decorum, when they could not be 
proved ever to have resulted in practical wrong, 
ought to have been regarded as ground for im- 
peachment, was at best doubtful. But Jefferson 
and his friends resolved to make the trial ; in addi- 
tion to the political advantage which success might 
bring them, they were incensed against Chase per- 
sonally by reason of a speech which he had lately 
delivered to the grand jury, wherein he had very 
soundly berated the Democratic party for having 
repealed the Judiciary Act. However unjustifi- 
able this tirade was, yet it made a narrow founda- 
tion for an impeachment. Other charges were 
therefore sought, and the Republican managers 
went back nearly five years to the trials of Fries 
and of Callender, at which Chase had certainly 
shown his political bias in a manner deserving of 
reprehension. But these were old stories ; and if 
they were so heinous as was now alleged, at least 
it followed that the Republicans had been guilty 
of gross laches in not having long since made them 
the basis of proceedings for removal. Attaching 
them to the later causes of complaint constituted 



PRESIDENT: FIRST TERM 233 

a virtual acknowledgment of the insufficiency of 
these later causes when taken by themselves. Nor 
was there any object in gathering together many 
improprieties, all which in conjunction might suffice 
to show, in a general way, that the judge was unfit 
for his office. For the question which the Senate 
must decide was not, whether upon the whole 
Chase was fit or unfit for his judicial position, but 
whether upon any one of the specific charges of 
the impeachment the evidence showed him to be a 
guilty man. 

Jefferson's behavior in this affair was shrewd 
and selfish. The end which he desired to attain 
was so desirable that even a small prospect of suc- 
cess justified the endeavor. But a defeat would 
bring so much condemnation on the losers, and 
there was so much chance of defeat, that he had 
no notion of subjecting his own person and for- 
tunes to the risk. Perhaps he felt about his pres- 
tige in politics as great generals are entitled to 
feel about their own lives in battle, that it was too 
valuable to his party to be jeoparded. Certain it 
is that he played only the part of an instigator. 
He did not send in a message, as in the more clear 
and wholly unimportant case of Pickering. But 
his faithful henchman, the hot-headed Randolph, 
equally devoid of caution and of judgment, stood 
ready at a word fi'om the chief to plunge into any 
dubious fray. The signal was given to him May 
13, 1803, through Nicholson, who was Randolph's 
personal friend, and acted as his chief of staff in 



234 THOMAS JEFFERSON 

the House of Representatives. To this gentleman 
Jefferson wrote : " You must have heard of the 
extraordinary charge of Chase to the grand jury 
at Baltimore. Ought this seditious and official 
attack on the principles of our Constitution and 
on the proceedings of a State to go unpunished? 
And to whom so pointedly as yourself will the 
public look for the necessary measures ? I ask 
these questions for your consideration ; for myself 
it is better that I should not interfere." Accord- 
ingly, to the end, he did not interfere ; he only 
watched with profound interest. But he had the 
disappointment to see the veteran judge, aided by 
the ablest counsel in the country, prove altogether 
too much for Randolph. As the cause proceeded, 
ha was compelled to recognize that only the most 
merciless use of the party whip could dragoon the 
requisite two thirds of the senators into sustaining 
the impeachment ; and he dared not exert his in- 
fluence in a cause which it would be so difficult to 
justify. In silent chagrin he averted his counte- 
nance, while Randolph met a severe defeat after 
a very bitter contest. The administration party 
was worsted, but its astute leader had been exter- 
nally so indifferent that he was not compromised 
in the popular opinion by the blunder of his 
friends. But he had learned the lesson and made 
no further attempts to meddle with the bench. It 
remained to the end an immovable obstacle in the 
way of the complete triumph of his political theo* 
ries. 



PRESIDENT: FIRST TERM 235 

Jefferson's first term in the presidency was a 
great success. This was not so much due to what 
he had really done as to what he appeared to have 
done. For in fact no fundamental changes had 
been made in the system of administering the na= 
tional affairs. A different atmosphere prevailed 
at the capital, but it had affected rather the exter- 
nal aspect than the inner constitution of the gov- 
ernment. The work of the Federalist party had 
not been undone in a single particular of any im- 
portance. A certain relaxation was discernible, 
a certain air of carelessness ; but except for the 
hostility to the army and navy, little practical re- 
sult was observable. All the great constructive 
measures of that party remained unaltered ; the 
governmental machinery which it had devised was 
worked by the new hands much as it had been by 
the old ones. In any matters of substantial im- 
portance there was very little more real democracy 
under the sway of the Democrats than there had 
been under that of the Federalists. The demo- 
crat Jefferson enjoyed and exercised a personal 
authority infinitely greater than had been wielded 
by the " monocrat " Adams. Indeed, even to this 
day no president since Washington has ever been 
able to dictate to Congress as Jefferson could do, 
and upon sufficient occasion actually did. No 
president since Washington has ever led the peo- 
ple in such unquestioning obedience. But these 
facts were not clearly recognized at the time. 
Congress did not appreciate that it was receiving 



236 THOMAS JEFFERSON 

orders ; the people had not the slightest notion 
that they were under control. For Jefferson never 
used the accent of command or assumed the bear- 
ing of a leader. His influence was singularly 
shadowy and mysterious. He simply communi- 
cated suggestions and opinions to this or that se- 
lected one among those who believed in him. The 
suggestions and opinions were followed not with 
any consciousness of discipline, but from a true 
feeling of admiration and confidence towards the 
great and good statesman who seemed always to 
speak wisely and to think virtuously; who, at 
least, had many times been proved to plan with 
unrivaled astuteness for the good of his party. 
That party had already begun to abjure the name 
of Republicans in order to adopt exclusively that 
of Democrats : the title has ever since been kept, 
and the identity of the party has been preserved, 
while its political opponents have had a variety of 
appellations and have undergone some breaks in 
continuity, if not some mutations of principle. 
But it is a singular circumstance that the body 
which had chosen to declare itself the guardian of 
democratic principles has always from the outset 
been peculiarly prone to fall beneath the dictation 
of a single individual. No leader among the 
Federalists, the Whigs, or the Republicans (the 
present party of that name) has ever had a per- 
sonal supremacy equal to that of Jefferson or that 
of Andrew Jackson. The Democrats have invari- 
ably been most powerful under the sway of a 



PRESIDENT: FIRST TERM 237 

monocrat and have always taken kindly to that 
sway. 

Jefferson was able from time to time in his first 
four years to make a very good showing in those 
matters of detail which were much more definite 
and obvious than were the generalities of political 
theories. Thus every one could see that he dressed 
with ostentatious shabbiness on occasions when 
dress was likely to be noticed ; every one knew 
that the monarchical levees of Washington and 
Adams were discontinued. It was also well known 
that the army had been subjected to such a " chaste 
reformation " that the smallest remnant only re- 
mained. The Federalists allowed no one to forget 
that the harbors were not properly fortified, and 
that the navy was not k^pt up as it should be. 
Like economies were practiced in all other depart- 
ments. When the odious internal taxes were done 
away with, and when, without them, the treasury 
prospered wonderfully and reduced the national 
debt with surprising rapidity, the credit for these 
achievements was given to the economy of the ad- 
ministration and to its able financial management. 
Really more efficient causes were the growth and 
prosperity of the country and the soundness of 
the financial policy which Hamilton had inaugu- 
rated. But Jefferson would have been more than 
a Quixote in politics had he frankly admitted that 
he was only reaping the fields which Hamilton had 
sowed. In like manner the freedom from anxiety 
sibout European complications was altogether due to 



238 THOMAS JEFFERSON 

causes entirely beyond the reach of Jefferson's in- 
fluence. But fortune had become his friend more 
than ever before, and everything redounded to his 
good fame and popularity.^ The nation did not 
concern itself too critically with the connections of 
cause and effect, but, feeling very comfortable and 
good-natured amid the broad visible facts of the 
passing time, gave credit for the condition of 
affairs to the rulers for the time being. Had not 
Jefferson always preached economy, and reviled 
the financial management of the Federalists ; and 
now were not expenses curtailed, and taxes reduced, 
and debts being rapidly diminished? Had not 
Jefferson always desired peaceful relations with 
foreign powers, and had the country been for many 
years past so free from irritation and anxiety grow- 
ing out of foreign affairs ? Had not Jefferson 

^ Jefferson did not hesitate to claim credit for all that he plausi- 
bly could. In April, 1802, he wrote : " The session of the first 
Congress convened since Republicanism has recovered its ascend- 
ency is now drawing to a close. They will pretty completely 
fulfill all the desires of the people. They have reduced the army 
and navy to what is barely necessary. They are disarming execu- 
tive patronage and preponderance by putting down one half the 
offices of the United States which are no longer necessary. These 
economies have enabled them to suppress all the internal taxes, 
and still to make such provision for the payment of their public 
debt as to discharge that in eighteen years. They have lopped off 
a parasite limb, planted by their predecessors on their judiciary 
body for party purposes ; they are opening the doors of hospitality 
to fugitives from the oppression of other countries ; and we have 
suppressed all those public forms and ceremonies which tended 
to familiarize the public eye to the harbingers of another form of 
govenuueat. The people are nearly all united." 



PRESIDENT: FIRST TERM 238 

always declared that he sought unity of feeling 
and the prevalence of universal good-will among 
the people themselves, and had political kindliness 
ever before permeated the nation as it did to-day ? 
Four years of prosperity and tranquillity left little 
room for discontent with the government. Amid 
such influences political opposition pined and 
almost died. The Federalist party shrank to in- 
significant dimensions ; indeed, since it flourished 
chiefly in a narrow locality, and was largely re- 
cruited from those peculiar spirits who appear to 
be by nature malcontents and grumblers, it seemed 
on the verge of becoming rather a faction than a 
party. 

Such was the condition of affairs when the fifth 
presidential election took place. At the close of 
February, 1804, the Republican members of Con- 
gress held a caucus and nominated Jefferson as 
the party candidate for the presidency at the next 
election. They also very gladly felt that they 
could safely throw Burr overboard, and they accord- 
ingly named George Clinton for the second place. 
Jefferson could not bring himself to decline a sec- 
ond term. He can hardly be seriously blamed 
for this, though certainly he became guilty of still 
another inconsistency, which he defended only by 
so-called reasons which deserved the less honorable 
name of excuses. His opinion " originally " had 
been, "that the President of the United States 
should have been elected for seven years, and be 
forever ineligible afterwards." But he had " since 



240 THOMAS JEFFERSON 

become sensible that seven years is too long to be 
irremovable. . . . The service for eight years, with 
a power to remove at the end of the first four, 
comes nearer to my principle as corrected by ex- 
perience." Admirable happiness of expression, 
that might have planted envy in the breast of the 
most subtle Jesuit ! In adherence to this principle, 
he adds : "I determine to withdraw at the end of 
my second term. . . . General Washington set the 
example of retirement at the end of eight years. I 
shall follow it ; and a few more precedents will 
oppose the obstacle of habit to any one after a 
while who shall endeavor to extend his term." So 
much for his abstract principles. His more specific 
motives he stated as follows : — 

*' I sincerely regret that the unbounded calumnies of 
the Federal party have obliged me to throw myself on 
the verdict of my country for trial, my great desire hav- 
ing been to retire, at the end of the present term, to a 
life of tranquillity ; and it was my decided purpose when 
I entered into office. They force my continuance. If 
we can keep the vessel of state as steadily in her course 
for another four years, my earthly purposes will be ac- 
complished, and I shall be free to enjoy, as you are 
doing, my family, my farm, and my books." 

So the Federalists were told that they might 
thank their own ill-temper for the continuance of 
their much hated opponent in the presidency. They 
must seek such comfort as they could find in his 
asseveration that he was very unhappy about it. 

A party so large and so omnipotent as the Re- 



PRESIDENT: FIRST TERM 241 

publicans, or Democrats, had now become, could 
not long remain wholly free from intestine feuds. 
Some rifts seemed already to become visible. The 
followers of Burr were angry at his ignominious 
displacement ; there were dissensions in New York ; 
and symptoms which soon ripened into ill blood 
were discernible in Pennsylvania. Even the De- 
mocrats in the Eastern States were getting much 
disgusted with the Virginian ascendency. In view 
of these hopeful facts the Federalists began to 
cherish schemes of detaching from the main body 
of Republicans a considerable number of malcon- 
tents ; then an alliance, in which they would be 
the more weighty partner, might restore them to 
power. Jefferson was well aware of these intrigues, 
but watched them with just contempt. Nothing 
came of them. When the time arrived, the Repub- 
lican party in all sections of the country voted 
solidly and won an overwhelming victory. Even 
Massachusetts was for once carried by them, to the 
immense surprise and chagrin of the Federalists. 
In the electoral colleges one hundred and sixty- 
two votes were cast for Jefferson and Clinton ; 
fourteen faithful Federalists gave their ballots 
for C. C. Pinckney and Rufus King. It was a 
glorious triumph. 



CHAPTER XVI 

PRESIDENT : SECOND TERM. — RANDOLPH'S DEFEO 
TION. — burr's treason 

A LONG life of singular good fortune, almost 
unprecedented in a land of popular government, 
checkered by few serious and no enduring disap- 
pointments, found its culmination in the brilliant 
victory of the election of 1804. Had Jefferson 
been as wise as the prince in the fable he would 
have been alarmed at his own fortune, and have 
felt reluctant further to test the constancy of his 
good Genius, knowing how difficult it is to perch 
long upon the giddy pinnacle of supreme success. 
Apparently he felt no such boding instinct, but 
approached his second term with tranquil confi- 
dence. This temper was not properly attributable 
to personal vanity, nor to the overweening ambi- 
tion which his detractors ascribed to him. Rather 
it was due to his firm belief that his theories of 
government were so founded in eternal truth that 
success and popularity naturally attended upon him 
as their expositor. So far as he was egotistical 
and self-confident, he was so because he honestly 
conceived himself to be a genuine and successful 
benefactor of mankind. Yet some misgivings and 



PRESIDENT: SECOND TERM 243 

self-distrust would have been more timely, for what- 
ever were his deserts he was about to meet such 
reverses as experience shows almost inevitably suc- 
ceed to long-continued prosperity. 

Not many days after Monroe and Livingston 
had agreed to purchase Louisiana, war had again 
broken out in Europe. Nor did hostilities advance 
far before the ill effects attendant upon all those 
Napoleonic struggles began to be experienced by 
the United States in the too familiar shape of 
naval outrages and lawless aggressions upon their 
neutral commerce. Serious complaints were heard, 
and the outlook was far from cheerful during many 
months before Jefferson's second inauguration. 
Yet he obstinately maintained a sanguine temper. 
Resolved to preserve a fair neutrality, he would 
not doubt that his just dealing would be recipro- 
cated, and the neutral rights of the United States 
be respected with moderate honesty. The career 
in which the French people had sustained Napo- 
leon for many years past had to a great extent 
cured Jefferson of those Galilean predilections 
which in Washington's day had given such an 
unneutral bias to his feelings. Now he had been 
for some time inclining towards England, not so 
much with warmth of sentiment as from a respect 
for her position as the chief obstacle in the way of 
Bonaparte's military despotism. Even so far back 
as October, 1802, he had written rather bitterly to 
Livingston : " It is well, however, to be able to in- 
form you generally . . . that we stand completely 



244 THOMAS JEFFERSON 

corrected of the error that either the government 
or the nation of France has any remains of friend- 
ship for us." In the summer of 1803 he said : 
" We see . . . with great concern the position in 
which Great Britain is placed, and should be sin- 
cerely afflicted were any disaster to deprive man- 
kind of the benefit of such a bulwark against 
the torrent which has for some time been bearing 
down all before it." Again : " We are friendly, 
cordially and conscientiously friendly, to England. 
We are not hostile to France. We will be rigor- 
ously just and sincerely friendly to both. I do not 
believe we shall have as much to swallow from 
them as our predecessors had." In this spirit to- 
wards the warring powers, Jefferson felt " a perfect 
horror at everything like connecting ourselves with 
the politics of Europe." His wish was that, while 
the nations of the old world were fighting, the 
United States should stand by indifferent, or at 
least impartial, but rapidly amassing riches through 
the abundant channel of a vast neutral commerce. 
It was a pleasing and sufficiently honorable pro- 
ject to gather wealth, increase, and power through 
peace. "The day," he wrote, in one of his happy 
dreamings, " is within my time as well as yours, 
when we may say by what laws other nations shall 
treat us on the sea. And we will say it. In the 
mean time we wish to let every treaty we have drop 
off without renewal." It was a civilized policy 
worthy of respect. Moreover it was a sensible 
policy. Jefferson alone understood in that time 



PRESIDENT: SECOND TERM 245 

the truth, which is now more generally appreciated, 
that by sheer growth in population, wealth, and 
industry a nation gains the highest degree of sub- 
stantial power and authority. 

But Jefferson's attitude was that of a mercantile 
Quaker seeking an amicable trade with infuriated 
highwaymen, hardly a feasible attitude to be long 
maintained. Rage and immediate self-interest 
alone ruled the combatants, who were about as 
much influenced by Mr. Jefferson's reasonable and 
pacific protestations as they were by the Sermon 
on the Mount. Peace and neutrality were con- 
temptible phrases in their ears. The British cabi- 
net determined that the United States should either 
become an ally of England or be plundered by 
English cruisers. France pursued the same policy 
so far as she could. But Jefferson, resolutely 
bent upon tranquillity and prosperity, clung to his 
chosen course, and persisted in protest and negoti- 
ation. His expressions of good-will towards Eng- 
land increased. " No two countries upon earth," 
he said, " have so many points of common interest 
and friendship, and their rulers must be great bun- 
glers indeed, if, with such dispositions, they break 
them asunder." It was cruel indeed to have only 
violence and robbery returned for such resolute 
amiability. But so it was ; and the battle of Tra- 
falgar occurring October 11, 1805, and leaving 
England supreme upon the ocean, proved a further 
serious misfortune for the United States, who soon 
began to suffer more intolerable injuries than any 
which had yet been inflicted on them. 



246 THOMAS JEFFERSON 

Another incident in the first year of his second 
term gave the President grave though temporary 
annoyance. Spain, backed by France, threatened 
to make serious trouble concerning the eastern 
boundaries of Louisiana. Jefferson, though irri- 
tated and ready to fight if need be, was yet suffi. 
ciently true to his principles to prefer the peaceful 
remedy of a purchase. On December 6, 1805, he 
sent a private message to the House, with the de- 
sign that it should lead up to such another appro- 
priation as had been placed at his disposal in the 
ease of Louisiana. But to the surprise and dis- 
comfiture of the administrationists, a report of a 
very different tenor was made by the committee to 
whom the message was referred ; and the chairman 
of that committee was John Randolph. Here was 
indeed an alarming defection ; for Randolph had 
long been accustomed to lead the House for the 
government. He was esteemed daring, able, and 
influential ; and those traits, which later gave him 
the character of a mere political free lance, had 
not yet been fully recognized. He had carried 
through the Louisiana measures with a contempt 
for logic and law which proved him the best of par- 
tisans ; he had endured eastigation and defeat in 
the Chase impeachment with a gallantry that made 
him seem the most loyal of followers. Now sud- 
denly he sprang up on the wrong side and poured 
forth the most vituperative harangues not only 
against the policy but even against the political 
integrity of the President. Jefferson might well 



PRESIDENT: SECOND TERM 247 

be taken aback by this singular bebavior, for he 
had a right to expect the same support in buying 
the Floridas which had been accorded in buying 
Louisiana. What, then, was to be the extent of 
this scission, this rebellion? For a short time he 
watched the debates in the House with anxiety. 
But ere long the votes reassured him ; only eleven 
of the party went off under Randolph's banner : 
eighty-seven maintained their allegiance to the Pre- 
sident. Evidently Randolph's personal influence 
had been overrated. Not all even of his eleven 
remained faithful to him, when it appeared that 
his purpose was not merely a difference upon this 
single occasion but extended to a permanent oppo- 
sition. The President took courage, and declared 
the House to be 

" as well disposed as ever I saw one. The defection 
of so prominent a leader threw them into dismay and 
confusion for a moment ; but they soon rallied to their 
own principles and let him go off with five or six fol- 
lowers only. . . . The alarm . . . from this schism 
has produced a rallying together and a harmony, which 
carelessness and security had begun to endanger. On 
the whole this little trial of the firmness of our repre- 
sentatives in their principles . . . has added much to 
my confidence in the stability of our government, and 
to my conviction that, should things go wrong at any 
time, the people will set them to rights by the peaceable 
exercise of their elective rights." 

Characteristic sentences ! Jefferson presents the 
unusual spectacle of one who grew more optimistic 
with increasing years. 



248 THOMAS JEFFERSON 

Yet Eandolph's conduct, though of slight politi- 
cal consequence, ought to have given food for re- 
flection to the people. It was not the outgrowth 
of selfish disappointment, but of a genuine and 
honest dissatisfaction with the career of the admin- 
istration. Randolph was really a purist in poli- 
tics, as Jefferson had professed to be. He hac* 
espoused Republicanism and had become the de 
vout disciple of Jefferson because he had believed 
that absolute purity would prevail beneath the 
sway of that party and its admirable leader. A 
Republican triumph was to inaugurate a golden 
age of virtue. He had been slow to awake from 
this delusion and to acknowledge that his idol was 
adopting the ways of all politicians, and that the 
business of government was conducted now much 
as it had been in the bad days of Federalism. In 
the pain and anger of disillusionment, the impetu- 
ous reformer saw no better course than to abandon 
a chief whom he chose to regard as forsworn. His 
criticism was not just, because the critic had set 
up an ideal standard, and had expected more than 
could be done. Yet there was a lesson to be 
learned from his strictures ; it was apparent that 
Jefferson in earlier times had found fault which 
he had no right to find, and raised hopes which he 
could not fulfill. He had dreamed and promised 
probably with honesty, but he was not transmuting 
his dreams into realities nor making his promises 
good. In truth he could not do so ; he had tried, 
but he had unfortunately talked about impossibili- 



PRESIDENT: SECOND TERM 249 

ties in government so far as that science had yet 
been developed. 

In 1805-6 another disturbance arose. Aaron 
Burr had made up his mind that treason was pre- 
ferable to a condition of political failure. For 
advancing the purposes of his boundless ambition 
Burr possessed infinite audacity, a singular ca- 
pacity for personal fascination, and great aptitude 
for the machinery of politics. But he needed 
much weightier qualities to enable him to cope 
with such powerful leaders as Hamilton and Jef- 
ferson, who both, hostile in everything else, were 
of one mind concerning the necessity of crushing 
him. Nor did Burr improve matters, but, to his 
infinite surprise and chagrin, made them vastly 
worse by the method which he took to rid himself 
of Hamilton. He only added universal odium to 
political disaster and financial ruin. In this state 
of his affairs he concocted his famous scheme for 
seating himself upon the "throne of the Monte- 
zumas," and annexing to it all the territory west 
of the AUeghanies. While the enterprise was 
stiU unchecked and the wildest rumors of its ex- 
tent and progress were prevalent, Jefferson main- 
tained a tranquil confidence highly creditable to 
his good sense. He omitted no precaution, but he 
felt no doubt as to the result. Substantially his 
anticipations were justified by the prompt and 
easy shattering of the meagre forces and the arrest 
of the principal traitor. 

When Burr was brought to Richmond for trial, 



250 THOMAS JEFFERSON 

the President took the liveliest interest in the 
legal proceedings. Then indeed was witnessed a 
singular spectacle. The Federalists, forgetting 
that the hands of the criminal were red with the 
life-blood of that distinguished man to whom their 
party owed at once its existence and nearly all the 
measures upon which it could base its good repu- 
tation, and seeing in the alleged project of Burr 
only a scheme which, if successful, would have 
overwhelmed in disgrace the administration of Jef- 
ferson, now received the wretch with every demon- 
stration of friendship and admiration. They 
pretended to regard him as an innocent man per- 
secuted by the President from motives of personal 
spite. It is highly improbable that they believed 
what they said ; but even if they did, it ill became 
them to be upholders of Burr. Accident made it 
likely that the punishment of a traitor would 
gratify a private animosity which it may be ad- 
mitted that the President must have felt, since he 
was human. But Burr was so unquestionably 
guilty that Jefferson, as president, was in duty 
bound to desire his conviction, and it was impossi- 
ble to say how far personal feeling mingled with 
public motives. By established rules the Presi- 
dent was entitled to the benefit of the doubt. But 
the Federalists, while they most shamefully con- 
doned Hamilton's murder, gave Jefferson no benefit 
of any doubt, preferring to pursue him with un- 
bounded abuse. 

Jefferson certainly made no secret of his opin« 



PRESIDENT: SECOND TERM 251 

ion ; but there was no reason why he should do 
so ; there was no danger that the naked fact that 
he thought Burr guilty would have any undue 
weight in a court over which Marshall was pre- 
siding. Indeed, if any influence at all was percep- 
tible in that tribunal, it was the influence of the 
Federalist friends of the accused. Jefferson, of 
course, made no effort, as he had no power, to 
affect the conduct of the trial directly or indi- 
rectly, save so far as that he communicated to the 
government counsel any facts or suggestions which 
occurred to him. But he watched the proceedings 
closely, and certainly he had a right to be indig- 
nant at some incidents in them. For instance, 
Luther Martin, himself not untainted by suspicion 
of collusion with his " highly-respected friend," as 
he took pains to call Burr in open court, did not 
hesitate to charge that the President, by " tyranni- 
cal orders " " contrary to the Constitution and the 
laws," had endeavored to consign " to destruction " 
" the life and property of an innocent man." The 
judges sat silent while the counsel uttered this and 
more of the same sort. Then application was 
made by the defendant's lawyers for a subpoena 
duces tecum to compel the President personally to 
attend as a witness, bringing the letters and re- 
cords of the War Department. The court granted 
the request, but admitted that it had no authority 
to enforce such a summons. This singular asser* 
tion of a right to command not backed by a power 
to enforce made the President angry. He was 



252 THOMAS JEFFERSON 

ready to send any papers which might be perti- 
nent, but he repudiated the notion that the court 
could properly order him to take the stand as a 
witness. There is hardihood, if not professional 
profanity, in questioning a decision of Marshall; 
but it certainly seems as though the Federalist 
rather than the judge spoke on this occasion ; and 
if all his rulings had been as open to criticism and 
to suspicion as was this one, he might have left a 
less formidable reputation. 

Jefferson wrote to Hay as follows : — 

" Laying down the position generally, that all persons 
owe obedience to subpoenas, he [Marshall] admits no 
exception unless it can be produced in his law books. 
. . . The Constitution enjoins his [the President's] con- 
stant agency in the concerns of six millions of people. 
Is the law paramount to this, which calls on him on 
behalf of a single one ? Let us apply the judge's own 
doctrine to the case of himself and his brethren. The 
sheriff of Henrico summons him from the bench to quell 
a riot somewhere in his county. The federal judge 
is by the general law a part of the posse of the state 
sheriff. Would the judge abandon major duties to per- 
form lesser ones ? Again : the court of Orleans or 
Maine commands by subpoenas the attendance of all 
the judges of the Supreme Court. Would they abandon 
their posts as judges, and the interests of millions com- 
mitted to them, to serve the purposes of a single indi- 
vidual ? The leading principle of our Constitution is 
the independence of the Legislature, Executive, and 
Judiciary of each other ; and none are more jealous of 
this than the Judiciary. But would the Executive be 



PRESIDENT: SECOND TERM 253 

independent of the Judiciary, if he were subject to the 
commands of the latter, and to imprisonment for dis- 
obedience, if the several courts could bandy him from 
pillar to post, keep him constantly trudging from north 
to south and east to west, and withdraw him entirely 
from his constitutional duties ? " 

A striking exemplification of the force of this 
argument would probably soon have been fur* 
nished, had not Burr escaped from a trial in Ohio 
by forfeiting his bonds and fleeing abroad. For 
the President would surely have been summoned 
to that trial also, and, if he had obeyed the sum- 
mons, would have been kept far from the seat of 
government, in a then very inaccessible region, at 
the moment when his presence was of exceptional 
importance at the capital, by reason of the doings 
of British cruisers on the Virginian seacoast, and 
of the perilous condition of our relations with Eng- 
land. The decision of Marshall was disregarded 
by the President, and nothing more came of it. 
Only the Federalists used his conduct as a further 
support of their accusations of tyranny and in- 
justice. 

When the final result was announced, Jefferson 
directed George Hay, of counsel for the govern- 
ment, not to pay or dismiss any witnesses until 
their testimony should have been taken down in 
writing. " These whole proceedings," he said, 
" will be laid before Congress, that they may de- 
cide whether the defect has been in the evidence 
of guilt, or in the law, or in the application of tha 



254 THOMAS JEFFERSON 

law, and that they may provide the proper remedy 
for the past and the future." He was as good as 
his word, calling the attention of Congress to the 
matter in his next message in language of unmis- 
takable tenor. The result ultimately was the pas- 
sage of some useful legislation concerning treason, 
but of course nothing was done in relation to this 
especial trial, or any individual engaged therein. 
Matters of greater consequence than the punish* 
ment of a ruined man demanded attentioiir 



CHAPTER XVn 

president: second term. EMBARGO 

Angry clouds were rolling up thick and fast 
from the Atlantic horizon over the benevolent head 
of the most pacific of earthly rulers. Jefferson 
seemed to make a modest and reasonable request 
of the European powers when he asked only that 
they would let the United States alone. But it 
was a request which neither France nor England 
had any mind to grant. Napoleon would tolerate 
no neutrality ; Great Britain added to her natural 
vindictiveness towards her quondam colonies a ra- 
pacious jealousy of their growing commerce. Her 
established purpose was to make a double gain at 
once by confiscation and extermination, and she 
carried out this policy with brutal insolence, in 
defiance of international law and natural right. 
In November, 1804, Jefferson was obliged to ad- 
mit that even in our own harbors our vessels were 
no longer safe from British guns. France, though 
equally ready, was fortunately less able to commit 
outrages. Yet the President hopefully added : 
" The friendly conduct of the governments, from 
whose officers, and subjects these acts have pro- 
ceeded, in other respects and places more under 



256 THOMAS JEFFERSON 

ilieir observation and control, gives us confidence 
that our representations on this subject will have 
been properly regarded." A vain hope ! A year 
passed and matters were worse rather than better. 
In the message of December 3, 1805, Jefferson 
could say nothing more satisfactory than that 

" our coasts have been infested and our harbors 
watched by private armed vessels, some of them with- 
out commissions, some with illegal commissions, others 
with those of legal form, but committing piratical acts 
beyond the authority of their commissions. They have 
captured in the very entrance of our harbors, as well as 
on the high seas, not only the vessels of our friends 
coming to trade with us, but our own also. They have 
carried them off under pretense of legal adjudication ; 
but not daring to approach a court of justice, they have 
plundered and sunk them by the way, or in obscure 
places where no evidence could arise against them ; 
maltreated the crews and abandoned them in boats in 
the open sea or on desert shores without food or cover- 
ing." 

January 17, 1806, he was further obliged to 
send in a special message on the same irritating 
subject, accompanied by the " memorials of several 
bodies of merchants in the United States." In 
the subsequent debates a singular alliance was 
struck between the Federalists from the commer- 
cial districts of New England and John Randolph, 
with his half dozen followers, — the " Quids " as 
they were called. That there was no real com- 
munity of interest between the malcontent planter 



PRESIDENT: SECOND TERM 257 

and the Eastern merchants may be gathered from 
Randolph's bold declaration that, " if this great 
agricultural nation is to be governed by Salem and 
Boston, New York and Philadelphia, and Balti- 
more and Norfolk and Charleston, let gentlemen 
come out and say so." Nevertheless the two 
bodies made common cause against the adminis- 
tration. But their strange coalition was of no 
avail. The measure desired by the President 
was carried by very handsome majorities in both 
houses. It provided that after November 15, 
1806, certain articles should not be imported from 
the British dominions, nor, if of British manufac- 
ture, from any other places. Mr. Jefferson, still 
omnipotent, might well say, " A majority of the 
Senate means well," and " the House of Represent- 
atives is as well disposed as I ever saw one." He 
believed in mercantile pressure, and he was al- 
lowed to have his way. 

But his way worked poorly. Less than a month 
after this act was passed the English warship Le- 
an der fired into an American coaster near Sandy 
Hook and killed a man. The President ordered 
the Leander out of American waters, and directed 
the arrest of her commander, which of course could 
not conveniently be made. Then, alarmed at the 
possible effect of this very moderate display of 
resentment, he wrote to Mr. Monroe, minister at 
London, deprecating the anger of the newly estab- 
lished and friendly cabinet of Mr. Fox. Public 
sentiment, he said, '^ did not permit us to do less 



258 THOMAS JEFFERSON 

than has been done. It ought not to be viewed by 
the ministry as looking towards them at all, but 
merely as the consequences of the measures of 
their predecessors, which their nation has called 
on them to correct. I hope, therefore, they will 
come to Just arrangements." Obviously Jefferson 
had forgotten something of what he had once 
learned concerning the British character, and did 
not divine the antidotes appropriate to its vices. 
It has been often said that if he had refrained 
from his prattle about peace, reason, and right, 
and instead thereof had hectored and swaggered 
with a fair show of spirit at this crucial period, 
the history of the next ten years might have been 
changed and the war of 1812 might never have 
been fought. Probably this would not have been 
the case, and England would have fought in 1807, 
1808, or 1809 as readily as in 1812. But, how- 
ever this may be, the high-tempered course was 
the only one of any promise at aU, and, had it pre- 
cipitated the war by a few short years, at least the 
nation would have escaped a long and weary jour- 
ney through a mud slough of humiliation. But it 
is idle to talk of what might have been had Jeffer- 
son acted differently. He could not act differently. 
Though the people would probably have backed 
kim in a warlike policy, he could not adopt it. A 
great statesman amid political storms, he was ut- 
terly helpless when the clouds of war gathered. 
He was as miserably out of place now as he had 
teen in the governorship of Virginia during the 



PRESIDENT: SECOND TERM 259 

Revolution. He could not bring himself to enter- 
tain any measures looking to so much as prepara- 
tion for serious conflict. A navy remained still, 
as it had always been, his abhorrence. His ex- 
tremest step in that direction was to build gun- 
boats. Every one has heard of and nearly every 
one has laughed at these playhouse flotillas, which 
were to be kept in sheds out of the sun and rain 
until the enemy should appear, and were then to 
be carted down to the water and manned by the 
neighbors, to encounter, perhaps, the fleets and 
crews which won the fight at Trafalgar, shattered 
the French navy at the Nile, and battered Copen- 
hagen to ruins. It almost seemed as though the 
very harmlessness of the craft constituted a recom- 
mendation to Jefferson. At least they were very 
cheap, and he rejoiced to reckon that nearly a 
dozen of them could be built for a hundred thou- 
sand dollars. So he was always advising to build 
more, while England, with all her fighting blood 
up, inflicted outrage after outrage upon a country 
whose ruler cherished such singular notions of 
naval affairs. 

Yet Jefferson could vapor a little at times in 
such a quiet private way as involved no substantial 
responsibility. He gave vent occasionally to belli- 
cose sentiments concerning Spain, and at some 
moments was quite ready to fight her about the 
Louisiana boundaries, or for the Floridas. Once 
he said : " "We begin to broach the idea that we 
consider the whole Gulf Stream as of our waters, 



260 THOMAS JEFFERSON 

in which hostilities and cruising are to be frowned 
on for the present, and prohibited so soon as either 
consent or force will permit us. We shall never 
permit another privateer to cruise within it, and 
we shall forbid our harbors to national cruisers. 
This is essential for our tranquillity and com- 
merce." This grandiloquence occurs in the veiy 
letter in which he admits that American ships are 
fired into, and American sailors are killed with 
impunity at the very mouths of American harbors. 
Surely never was man more devoid of a sense of 
humor ! 

Meantime, though the British were infesting the 
Atlantic seaboard like pirates, Jefferson's perfect 
faith in his own measures and the people's equal 
confidence in him were unshaken. The Demo- 
crats continued to score gains in the elections, 
until the whole country seemed on the point of 
becoming solidly of that party. In this state of 
affairs the ninth Congress came together on De- 
cember 1, 1806 ; and on the next day Jefferson 
sent in a message in which he said : " The delays 
... in our negotiations with the British govern- 
ment appear to have proceeded from causes which 
do not forbid the expectation that during the 
course of the session I may be enabled to lay be- 
fore you their final issue." Nevertheless a further 
appropriation for more gunboats was recommended, 
as matter of course. They were fully as good for 
peace as for war ! 

A noteworthy passage in this message, though 



PRESIDENT: SECOND TERM 261 

an episode in the present narrative, deserves a 
word. It appeared likely that there would soon 
be a surplus of income over expenditures, and the 
President said that the use to be made of that 
surplus demanded consideration. 

" Shall we suppress the impost and give that advan= 
tage to foreign over domestic manufactures ? On a few 
articles of more genei'al and necessary use the' suppres- 
sion in due season will doubtless be right, but the great 
mass of the articles on which impost is paid is foreign 
luxuries, purchased by those only who are rich enough 
to afford themselves the use of them. Their patriotism 
would certainly prefer its continuance and application 
to the great purposes of the public education, roads, 
rivers, canals, and such other objects of public improve- 
ment as it may be thought proper to add to the constitu- 
tional enumeration of federal powers." 

Here was a somersault indeed, which might well 
confound those who remembered how Republi- 
cans had always denounced the theory of internal 
improvements. It helped the inconsistency not at 
all that Jefferson admitted the necessity of a con- 
stitutional amendment in order to render lawful 
the expenditures which he contemplated. For his 
party had maintained not only that such projects 
were, but also that they ought to be, unconstitu- 
tional. Yet now Jefferson, who had preached that 
the Union was and ought to remain a league for 
the sole purpose of foreign relationships, that the 
States were and ought to remain supreme and in- 
dependent governments in respect of all internal 



262 THOMAS JEFFERSON 

and domestic aJBfairs, — Jefferson was actually 
urging this doctrine of internal improvements, on 
the very alleged ground that it would unify, nation- 
alize, centralize the people and the government ! 
" By these operations," he said, " new channels of 
communication will be opened between th& States ; 
the lines of separation will disappear ; their in- 
terests will be identified ; and their union cemented 
by new and indissoluble ties." Hamilton would 
have had some entertaining comments for this ex- 
traordinary politico-economical conversion to his 
principles. 

To return to foreign affairs : on December 3, 
1806, the President sent in a special message 
advising the " further suspension " of the Non- 
Importation Act, which had not yet been put in 
force. His motive was that Mr. Fox had become 
prime minister, and was supposed to cherish 
friendly sentiments towards the United States. 
The obedient majority did his bidding, encounter- 
ing only a trifling opposition from the Federalists. 
February 19, 1807, the President announced that 
Monroe and Pinkney had at last succeeded in 
coming to terms with Great Britain, though un- 
fortunately the pleasure of the news was seriously 
dashed by rumors that impressment was not dis- 
posed of. Within a few days this disappointment 
was made certain by the receipt of the treaty, 
showing that the negotiators had followed the 
example of Mr. Jay in taking the best they could 
get rather than nothing. But this best seemed to 



PRESIDENT: SECOND TERM 263 

Jefferson so bad that he would not for a moment 
consider it. Loath to fight for the national rights, 
at least he would not compromise them even by 
remote inference. In negotiation he had infinite 
courage and obstinacy. Accordingly, without com- 
municating the treaty to the Senate, though that 
body was then in session, he at once returned it to 
Monroe, stating that it would not do at all, and that 
negotiations should be resumed for a widely dif- 
ferent conclusion. No one could find fault with 
his opinion concerning the treaty, but the Federal- 
ists assailed the manner of the rejection as high- 
handed and autocratic. It had this character 
rather in appearance than in substance ; yet such 
an act done by John Adams would not have es- 
caped Jefferson's bitter animadversion. 

Though Jefferson sent back the treaty, he took 
care, at the same time, to manifest his still pacific 
temper by exercising the discretionary power which 
Congress had vested in him further to suspend the 
Non-Importation Act. Unfortunately a Christian 
and commercial disposition was hopelessly out of 
tune with the times. The English policy was sim- 
ple : since the Americans would not fight, they 
were the easier objects of plunder. The French 
principle was responsive : since the Americans are 
to be robbed, we must share in the booty. So 
from time to time came British Orders in Council, 
and retaliatory French decrees dated by the victo- 
rious Bonaparte from the conquered capitals, Ber- 
lin and Milan. The ultimate result of all these 



264 THOMAS JEFFERSON 

taken together was, that substantially nothing but 
their own coasting trade was left open to Ameri- 
can vessels. One half the mercantile world was 
sealed up by the Bi-itish, the other half by the 
French. Ships not complying with certain regula- 
tions were liable to capture by English cruisers ; 
ships complying with those regulations were sub- 
ject to seizure by French vessels ; and vice versa. 
Nor could even the trade betwixt their own ports 
be carried on by the citizens of the United States 
with safety, for British vessels prowled even in 
our home waters in search of seamen, and in a few 
years carried off thousands of victims. Their au- 
dacity was even such that in June, 1807, the Eng- 
lish warship Leoj)ard actually fired a broadside 
into the American frigate Chesapeake, just outside 
Hampton Roads, killing and wounding several 
men. The Chesapeake, not prepared' for action, 
struck her colors ; the British commander boarded 
her and carried off four sailors, American citizens, 
three of them at least being native born. One of 
them was forthwith hanged at Halifax. 

The news of this outrage threw the nation into 
a great rage. " Never," said Jefferson, " since the 
battle of Lexington, have I seen this country in 
such a state of exasperation as at present." Some 
among the extreme Federalists of the New Eng- 
land States, terrified at the prospect of hostilities 
with England, justified the English commander ; 
but most of the party were too high-spirited for 
Buch conduct, and joined in the indignant outcry 



PRESIDENT: SECOND TERM 26S 

of the Republicans. " The Federalists themselves 
coalesce with us as to the object, although they 
will return to their old trade of condemning every 
step we take towards obtaining it," said Jefferson. 
He himself was deeply incensed, but acknowledged 
the obligation to take no irrevocable step in the 
heat of passion. " Duty," he considered, " re- 
quires that we do no act which shall commit Con- 
gress in their choice between war, non-intercourse, 
and other measures." But he at once dispatched 
a vessel to England to demand reparation, and 
summoned Congress to meet in special session on 
October 26, by which time he hoped to have a 
reply. " Reason," he said, " and the usage of 
civilized nations require that we should give them 
an opportunity of disavowal and reparation. Our 
own interest, too, the very means of making war, 
requires that we should give time to our merchants 
to gather in their vessels and property and our 
seamen now afloat." It is plain that at this time 
he anticipated war. He declared that he was' 
making " every preparation " for it " which is 
within our power," and possibly he really thought 
that he was getting the country into warlike shape. 
But he was pitifully mistaken. He only got out 
some gunboats, did some trifling work on harbor 
fortifications, and gathered a small amount of 
supplies. CongTCSs afterward made some petty 
appropriations to pay for these things. 

On October 26, 1807, Congress came together. 
In both houses a majority, even more overwhelm* 



266 THOMAS JEFFERSON 

ing than ever before, consisted of administration. 
ists, a term quite as properly to be used in de- 
scribing them as either Republicans or Democrats, 
for they were thoroughly subject to the personal 
influence of Jefferson. It was evident that what- 
ever measures he should recommend would be 
promptly carried. Yet he was content in his mes- 
sage only to communicate the state of affairs, 
which was already well known, and to let the de- 
velopment of his policy await the English reply 
concerning the Chesapeake outrage. This reply 
did not arrive until the second week in December, 
and then it was only learned that England would 
send a special envoy about the matter. 

A few days later, on December 18, Mr. Jeffer- / 
son sent in a brief but momentous message. The 
communications accompanying it, he said, would 
show "the great and increasing dangers with 
which our vessels, our seamen, and merchandise 
are threatened on the high seas and elsewhere 
from the belligerent powers of Europe ; and it 
being of great importance to keep in safety these 
essential resources, I deem it my duty to recom- 
mend the subject to the consideration of Congress, 
who will doubtless perceive all the advantages 
which may be expected from an inhibition of the 
departure of our vessels from the ports of the 
United States." It was afterwards made a serious 
question whether or not, at the time of sending 
this message, the President had information of the 
British Orders in Council dated November 11, 



PRESIDENT: SECOND TERM 267 

held back from formal issuance until November 
17, declaring a " paper blockade " of all the ports 
of France and her allies. The English ministry 
and their friends, the American Federalists, always 
maintained that Jefferson had no proper knowledge 
of these Orders, and that his recommendation of 
an embargo was a premature and unjustifiable act 
of unfriendliness. The administrationists retorted 
that Jefferson had the intelligence, though not in 
official form. Really the point, if it could be 
made good, deserved to be disregarded, and could 
have been preferred only by the immeasurable 
insolence of Mr. Canning. The communication 
would have been formally made if England had 
not behaved with shamefid disingenuousness. She 
pretended to send Mr. Kose as a special emissary 
in the Chesapeake affair, but, besides hampering 
him with such preposterous conditions that he 
could only disclose them and sail home again, she 
also held back these Orders in Council until liter- 
ally a few hours after his departure from London. 
The honorable motive was that the United States 
might receive and treat with him in ignorance of 
them. It hardly became a minister, guilty of such 
sharp practice, to complain that Mr. Jefferson had 
been a little too ready with a demonstration of 
unfriendliness. 

So now at last the presidential policy was an- 
nounced, — not war, but commercial pressure, an 
embargo. The history of the brief remnant of 
Mr. Jefferson's administration is little else than a 



268 THOMAS JEFFERSON 

narrative of Federalist attacks on this measure, 
and its defense by the administrationists. At first 
it was surprisingly popular. In the Senate John 
Quincy Adams not only deserted his party in order 
to vote for it, but said : " The President has recom- 
mended this measure on his high responsibility. 
I would not consider, I would not deliberate, I 
would act. Doubtless the President possesses such 
further information as will justify the measure." 
The senators accepted this reason and this sugges- 
tion. Jefferson advised ; deliberation was super- 
fluous. In a session of only four hours, behind 
closed doors, under a suspension of the rules, the 
bill was passed on the same day on which the 
message was received. In the House the Federal- 
ists kept up a debate for three days, but also with 
closed doors. Except for this brief delay they were 
powerless, and the bill was carried by 82 to 44. 
The vote, however, showed that some few Republi- 
cans had for once gone over to the Federalists and 
the " Quids." 

It has been pretty generally agreed in subse- 
quent times that the embargo was a blunder. Cer- 
tainly the world has outgrown such measures, just 
as it has outgrown Jefferson's amphibious gun- 
boats. It is hard to realize that only three quarters 
of a century ago neither of these ideas, more espe- 
cially that of the embargo, had become discredited. 
On the contrary, in 1807-8 an embargo was a 
reputable measure of statecraft, supposed to be 
efficient both defensively and offensively. In the 



PRESIDENT: SECOND TERM 269 

[Jnited States especially the people had been wont 
for more than a generation to regard it with 
peculiar favor. So now the policy was hailed with 
approbation by an overwhelming majority. Some 
Federalist newspapers had cried out for it ; and 
even many of the most influential merchants were 
strongly in favor of it, though possibly from the 
interested motive of wearing out their poorer com- 
petitors. Moreover, it was supposed by all that 
this embargo, like earlier ones, would be of reason- 
ably short duration ; and though the Federalists 
called attention to the fact that the present act, 
unlike its predecessors, did not establish any limit 
of time, yet few persons honestly feared that this 
omission had any dangerous significance. 

Jefferson argued very fairly that we should save 
the pi'operty of our citizens, and the persons of our 
sailors, by keeping our ships in our own harbors, 
whereas on the high seas both merchandise and 
men would be stolen. The device did not seem to 
him ignoble. Moreover, since commerce was to 
be forbidden in foreign no less than in domestic 
bottoms, he was able to depict great numbers of 
British merchants suffering loss and ruin, and 
throngs of British artificers reduced to starvation 
by the consequent curtailment of industry, Eng- 
lish laborers, he said, could not, like Americans, 
readily adopt new occupations ; neither had they 
that surplus of food which our farmers enjoyed. 
He spoke as if all Americans were farmers, and 
gave no thought to the great seaboard population 



270 THOMAS JEFFERSON 

wholly dependent upon trade. If they were to be 
hurt, he at least expected them to be kept silent 
by patriotism, while he anticipated that the clamors 
of the English malcontents would overawe Parlia- 
ment and the administration. A certain amount 
of sound reason which really lay in these argu- 
ments, backed by the confident assent of a vast 
majority of the nation, and soon corroborated by 
cheering accounts from Mr. Pinkney concerning 
the effect of the pressure in England, constituted 
perhaps a justification for Mr. Jefferson in the 
outset. But in order to make this justification 
complete two things were necessary, both obviously 
implied in the reasoning of the administrationists. 
First : so far as the embargo was a domestic mea- 
sure, i. e. designed to save our ships and sailors, 
it should obviously be accompanied by vigorous 
preparations for war, since it was absurd to regard 
an embargo as a permanently saving device ; be- 
fore long it would constitute destruction ; it could 
only be used to save until the other means to that 
end customary among nations could be resorted to. 
Secondly : so far as the embargo had a foreign 
aspect, i. e. was designed to influence British legis- 
lation, it was properly experimental only, and, so 
soon as the working of the experiment clearly pro- 
mised failure, it should have been abandoned. 

Now in point of fact it was impossible long to 
defend the measure in the former of these two as- 
pects, because the lapse of time showed no serious 
purpose to protect by sufficient force the men and 



PRESIDENT: SECOND TERM 271 

property subjected to tlie embargo. To save them 
by shutting them up, until preparation could be 
made to protect them when abroad, was therefore 
clearly not the government policy. Hence the 
measure, if it was to be defended at all after the 
passing of a few months, must be defended in its 
second or foreign character. But here, unfortu- 
nately, it was utterly and hopelessly indefensible. 
The clamor had been raised, and the British gov- 
ernment had turned a deaf ear to it, for reasons 
altogether too attractive to be readily rejected. 
The merchants who were injured by the cessation 
of the American trade would probably suffer only 
temporarily ; at any rate they were only individ- 
ual victims of a great national policy, destined to 
work an immense and lasting benefit to the entire 
shipping and mercantile interests of their country. 
It was the established aim of the English govern- 
ment to annihilate American commerce, which al- 
ready threatened a dangerous rivalry with their 
own. In ministerial eyes the embargo was a wel- 
come and efficient aid, blindly furnished by their 
competitor against itself. Jefferson ought to have 
understood this, and appreciated that England 
could play at his game longer and with much more 
profit than the United States. For while in Eng- 
land a few suffered, in the United States the 
whole vast industries of shipping and commerce 
were subjected to a process of starvation which in 
time would result in utter destruction. The longer 
the United States endured, the more they advanced 



272 THOMAS JEFFERSOM 

the English scheme. That scheme was a perma* 
nent policy, whereas the United States were seek- 
bg only an immediate, specific object, namely, a 
recognition of their rights without enforcement by 
war. Failing in this, as ultimately they did fail 
in it, they were wholly losers. Even succeeding 
in it, they would sustain a serious injury, because 
they would return much weakened to a sharp com- 
petition. On the other hand, in any possible event 
the English must gain considerably; for every 
set-back encountered by American commerce was 
a positive advancement of English commerce. 

It may be further remarked that if the embargo 
accomplished nothing as against England, neither 
did it do better as against France. That country, 
herself little hurt by the embargo, was satisfied 
to have it continue in force ; for the permanent 
commercial ambition of England disturbed Napo- 
leon very little. He was content to see that for 
the immediate present his foe was cut off from 
supplies, and subjected to a partial impoverish- 
ment. 

Unfortunately the English policy was by no 
means intrinsically devoid of shrewdness or effi- 
ciency. The discouragement which American mer- 
chants endured for many years prior to the war of 
1812, followed by the dangers and losses encoun- 
tered during that war, constituted the first and 
powerful influence operating to destroy American 
commerce. Had the mercantile and shipping in 
terests not been weakened by the prolonged emaci' 



PRESIDENT: SECOiH) TERM 273 

ation inflicted by the home government, they might 
have remained sufficiently powerful to keep within 
reasonable limits that ill-advised legislation which 
has since completed the destruction initiated by 
Jefferson's measures. Unintentionally he, who 
many years before had expressed his antipathy to 
commerce, now did it an injury from which it 
never recovered. But it was through sheer igno- 
rance, not in malice. 

As Jefferson did not see that he was serving the 
merchants very ill, so he would not admit that he 
was being false to his own principles. The Feder- 
alists said that no such example of " strong gov- 
ernment " had ever been seen while they were in 
power. Their embargoes had been brief and sim- 
ple affairs in comparison with this unlimited and 
monstrous one. But they were talking of what 
was really matter of discretion rather than of prin- 
ciple ; for if an embargo was a lawful measure, its 
duration in any especial case was to be determined 
by a judgment upon the exigencies of that case. 
The argument that, because the act creating this 
embargo did not specify its length, therefore it did 
not " regulate " but destroyed commerce, and was 
unconstitutional, was very properly overruled by 
the Supreme Court. But Jefferson was not trui 
to his principles, because, of his two reasons, ono 
at least was thoroughly undemocratic. The en- 
deavor to take care of the property and persons of 
American citizens by shutting them up, as it were, 
withii> doors, was the extremity of paternal govern' 



874 THOMAS JEFFERSON 

ment. It might have borne a different character 
had it been a war measure, but within a very short 
time every one knew that it was not a war mea- 
sure, but simply an act of paternity. Jefferson 
constantly spoke of it in this light. As such it 
was not only undemocratic, but eminently foolish. 
Jefferson might wisely have left to the merchants 
the care both of their profits and of their princi- 
pal. They were not a stupid or a helpless class, 
and they understood their business far better than 
he did. This argument was advanced by Quincy 
of Massachusetts ; it could not be answered, but it 
was disregarded. 

Thus it appears that when, through Jefferson's 
influence, the embargo was imposed, it was not to 
be regarded as absolutely a sound and wise mea- 
sure. It required to be vindicated either by the 
doing of certain things in the United States, or 
the occurrence of certain events in England. Af- 
ter a reasonable time those things had not been 
done at home, and those events had not taken place 
abroad. For the latter, Jefferson was not respon- 
sible ; for the former, he was. For he had but tc 
say the word to Congress and he would have been 
strictly obeyed. He was so supreme and so well 
known to be a strong advocate of peace, that had 
he asserted the necessity of creating a navy and 
building fortifications, or even beginning hostili- 
ties, these steps would have been taken at once. 

Jefferson's biographers narrate with pleasure the 
support, at first enthusiastic and afterward patient, 



PRESIDENT: SECOND TERM 275 

which Congress and the people yielded to the em- 
bargo policy, as if this constituted his justification. 
But the argument is unsatisfactory. It was Jeffer- 
son's function to be wiser than the people, to guide 
and instruct them ; or at least he assumed this 
duty. Congress and the nation persevered in the 
embargo for the same reason that they had enacted 
and applauded it in the first instance ; and that 
reason had been forcibly and clearly expressed in 
Mr. Adams's statement that his reliance was upon 
the " President's responsibility." Such also was 
the reliance of the embargo majorities in and out 
of Congress. Jefferson at first invited and after- 
ward encouraged this faith. It was not until after 
the miscarriage and unpopularity of the measure 
had become unquestionable that he began to find 
his " responsibility " irksome, and to seek to shift 
it from his wearied shoulders. One thing, how- 
ever, it is fair to say : when an administration 
bhmders it usually receives sound instruction from 
the opposition; Jefferson did not. The Federal- 
ists were even blinder than the administrationists. 
They showed their ignorance of the true bearing 
of the embargo by their criticisms upon it. Their 
horizon also was bounded by the immediate injury 
to Great Britain, and they stigmatized the mea- 
sure as a " sly and cunning " endeavor to render 
surreptitious aid to France. They were even more 
opposed to warlike measures than were the Demo- 
crats, and had no better advice to give than an 
ignominious submission to all English demands. 



S76 THOMAS JEFFERSON 

l^j The embargo message, it will be remembered; 
was sent in to Congress on December 18, 1807. 
On March 23, 1808, Jefferson wrote to Levi 
Lincoln of Massachusetts, that " it appears to be 
approved, even by the Federalists of every quarter 
except yours. The alternative was between that 
and war, and in fact it is the last card we have to 
play short of war." By June 23, 1808, he wrote : 
" The day is not distant when that [war] will be 
preferable to a longer continuance of the em- 
bargo." By August 9 we get glimpses of serious 
popular discontent. On that day the President 
writes to the secretary of war, in language wonder- 
fully different from that which he had held at 
the time of the whiskey insurrection, and with a 
spirit that would have been better displayed to- 
wards trans-Atlantic enemies than towards suffer- 
ing American citizens : — 

" The Tories of Boston openly threaten insurrection 
if their importation of flour is stopped. The next post 
will stop it. I fear your governor is not up to the tone 
of these parricides, and I hope, on the first symptom 
of an open opposition of the law by force, you will fly to 
the scene and aid in suppressing any commotion." 

Jefferson was neither awed nor instructed by 
the loud grumbling in New England. The day 
which in March he had described as " not distant " 
gave little promise of drawing nearer. To the ma- 
rine interest it seemed to be mysteriously estab- 
lished in a perpetual offing ; it became in time as 
exasperating as a mirage. 



PRESIDENT: SECOND TERM 277 

By September, 1808, Jefferson had become hope- 
less of affecting the policy of England by longer 
persistence in the embargo. Mr. Pinkney, he said, 
inferred from a conversation with Canning that 
the Orders might be repealed : " but I have little 
faith in diplomatic inferences and less in Canning's 
good faith." Still the time glided on until Con- 
gress met on November 7. The whole country 
waited anxiously to hear what Jefferson would say 
o that body ; would he declare that " not distant " 
day to be at length near at hand ? would the dis- 
appointment abroad, the discontent at home, and 
later the loss by his party of all the New England 
States save one at the presidential election, have 
any weight with him ? His message was non-com- 
mittal. He stated that he had intimated to Eng- 
land that a withdrawal of her Orders in Council 
would be met by a suspension of the embargo as 
to her, whatever might be the action of France ; 
but he admitted that the English cabinet had paid 
no attention to this communication. In a word, 
he acknowledged that his " candid and liberal ex- 
periment " had " failed," and said that now it must 
" rest with the wisdom of Congress to decide on 
the course best adapted " to the existing state of af 
fairs. Apparently he meant to give no more advice 
and to take no more responsibility. He plumed 
himself a little because the embargo had " demon- 
strated to foreign nations the moderation and firm- 
ness which govern our councils." But he did not 
add that Great Britain had watched with exas- 



278 THOMAS JEFFERSON 

perating complacency this patient endurance with 
which the United States had suffered for her bene- 
fit. Neither did he mention that when our minister 
had made to Mr. Canning the offer to repeal the 
embargo if England would repeal the Orders, that 
sarcastic gentleman had replied that he should like 
to help the Americans to get rid of the restrictions 
which they found so very " inconvenient," though 
he really could not go so far as to withdraw his 
Orders for that purpose. Bonaparte also, with 
practical irony, had issued a decree for the seizure 
of all American ships found afloat, out of friend- 
ship, he said, to the United States, to aid them in 
preventing the escape of their vessels in contraven- 
tion of their law. Jefferson, having no humor in 
his composition, did not amuse Congress by repeat- 
ing these remarks. 

By refraining from uttering a word pointing 
towards war, Jefferson made it plain enough that 
he did not desire it. The embargo, from being a 
temporary measure, was beginning to be embraced 
by him as a policy of indefinite duration. The 
result was a surprising indication of his almost 
despotic supremacy. An enormous majority in the 
House of Representatives adopted a series of reso- 
lutions indorsing the continuance of the embargo. 
In the Senate a direct resolution to repeal it re- 
ceived only six yeas against twenty-five nays ; and 
on December 21 that body passed a very strong en- 
forcing bill. But it was not long before the Presi- 
dent and administrationists got alarming evidence 



PRESIDENT: SECOND TERM 275 

of their folly. The Massachusetts legislature con« 
demned the enforcing bill as " unjust, oppressive, 
and unconstitutional, and not legally binding." 
Governor TrumbuU of Connecticut refused to com- 
ply with the President's requisition for militia 
under the new act, and sent to the legislature a mes- 
sage breathing the spirit of nullification. That 
body, in response, passed resolutions similar to those 
of Massachusetts. Evasions of the law were coun- 
tenanced by public opinion, and convictions could 
not be had before juries. Many influential Feder- 
alists began to accustom their minds to the idea of 
secession, if not actually to form definite plans for 
it. Of this menacing temper Jefferson received 
information. Whether or not it frightened him 
is doubtful. His conduct henceforth becomes so 
wavering that his true sentiments cannot be accu- 
rately ascertained. In November, 1808, he did not 
desire a repeal. On January 14, 1809, he said 
that the objects which the embargo was originally 
designed to subserve were nearly attained, so that 
the measure was "now near its term." A few 
days afterward a bill was passed for an extra ses- 
sion of Congress in May next, with the design of 
repealing the embargo on June 1, and " then resum- 
ing and maintaining by force our right of naviga- 
tion." This apparently ought to have pleased Jef- 
ferson, if he clung to his opinion of January 14 ; 
but it did not. He still hugged the vision of peace 
with painful tenacity, and treated the policy of 
hostility as men treat old age, pushing it always a 



280 THOMAS JEFFERSON 

little in advance of the present day. He moaned 
somewhat, because the exceptional " situation of 
the world," such as he declared never had been 
before and probably never would be again, had 
defeated his fair policy. " If we go to war now," 
he complained, " I fear we may renounce forever 
the hope of seeing an end of our national debt. 
If we can keep at peace eight years longer, our 
income, liberated from debt, will be adequate to 
any war, without new taxes or loans, and our posi- 
tion and increasing strength will put us hors dHn- 
sulte from any nation." Yet it was his friend and 
the leader of the administrationists in the House, 
Nicholas of Virginia, who, on January 25, intro- 
duced resolutions contemplating a repeal of the 
embargo on June 1. An eager debate upon these 
resulted in a breaking up and reorganizing of 
parties and cliques which was quite kaleidoscopic. 
The date was finally set at March 4. This vote 
was regarded as a defeat of the administration, but 
only in so far as it made the date of repeal earlier 
than the contemplated date of May 1 by nearly 
three months, — not a serious period. Yet eighteen 
months later, partly probably in reference to this 
vote, and partly to subsequent votes of a like tenor, 
Jefferson wrote : " The Federalists during their 
shoi't-lived ascendency have nevertheless, by forcing 
from us the repeal of the embargo, inflicted a 
wound on our interests which can never be cured." 
It looks very much as though the President did 
not know his own mind; if he did, certainly he 



PRESIDENT: SECOND TERM 281 

succeeded in preventing posterity from finding it 
out. The truth is that he knew his policy to have 
failed, yet could not abandon it. He seems to 
have been bitterly disappointed, and a little fright- 
Qued. He ^^as pained to see his party defeated, 
but his chief anxiety was becoming personal, cen- 
tring in the desire to escape from his embarrassing 
position. He had not longed more to get out of 
the governorship of Virginia than he now longed 
to get out of the presidency. At times he resolved 
not to try to make up his mind, not to do or advise 
anything. Even in December, 1808, he said : " I 
have thought it right to take no part myself in 
proposing measures, the execution of which will 
devolve on my successor. I am, therefore, chiefly 
an unmeddling listener to what others say." In 
other words, he renounced the duty of governing 
the country for nearly three months before he was 
lawfully relieved from it. Toward the close of 
January he reiterated, " I am now so near retiring 
that I take no part in affairs beyond the expression 
of an opinion. I think it fair that my successor 
should now originate those measures, of which he 
will be charged with the execution and responsi- 
bility. . . . Five weeks more will relieve me from 
a drudgery to which I am no longer equal." 

These protestations may be believed. Jefferson 
appears in no degree responsible for the subse- 
quent action of Congress in curtailing the duratiod 
of that measure which had originally been his own. 
On March 4, 1809, he was probably almost as glad 



282 THOMAS JEFFERSON 

to leave tlie presidency as eight years before lie had 
been to enter it. He was released from disappoint- 
ment, from failure, and from imminent humilia- 
tion. During the closing months of his adminis- 
tration he had presented a pitiable spectacle of a 
ruler helplessly confounded by the miscarriage of 
a policy. Yet his personal prestige, though dimin= 
ished, was still immense. Probably three quarters 
of the nation believed him the greatest, wisest, and 
most virtuous of living statesmen. He had the 
rare pleasure of transmitting the government to a 
successor over whom his personal influence was 
very great, who was in thorough political sympa- 
thy with him, and towards whom he succeeded in 
maintaining a personal friendliness without ex- 
ample in the history of the country. He had even 
to a considerable extent enjoyed the rare privilege 
of naming that successor. It is true that Madi- 
son was pointed out for the place by his official 
position, his eminent services, and his abundant 
ability ; yet at one time a strong effort was made 
to set up Monroe as a competitor. The movement 
made a brief show of becoming formidable. Jef- 
ferson avowed that he would take no sides as be- 
tween two men, each of whom he loved and trusted. 
But Monroe entertained uncomfortable suspicions, 
which were fostered by the malicious communica- 
tions of persons professing to be friends to him, 
and who certainly were enemies of the President. 
A slight coolness ensued in spite of Jefferson's 
protestations, but it did not last long. Jefferson 



PRESIDENT: SECOND TERM 283 

was the most conciliatory of men, and Monroe had 
really no choice but to be pacified. Jefferson prob- 
ably told the truth when he said that he took no 
part for either competitor. There is no evidence 
that he was in any way active in Madison's behalf. 
On the other hand, it cannot be denied that Madi- 
son had long before been designed by him for the 
position, that this was perfectly well understood, 
and that the knowledge of his wishes was conclu- 
sive. 

Jefferson had been earnestly besought by many 
and influential bodies of citizens to become a can- 
didate for a third term. Probably he could have 
had the honor, had he sought it. But he declined 
promptly and without the least wavering. He had 
already stretched his avowed principles concern- 
ing the duration of incumbency quite far enough ; 
neither could he now add anything to a fame so 
great that it could be increased more by declining 
than by accepting further distinctions. Moreover, 
the times began to look stormy and uncomfortable. 
He would be sixty-five years old at the close of his 
second term ; he had been in public life, with 
trifling interruptions, for about forty years ; he 
had enjoyed an amount and constancy of good for- 
tune rare in any polity and almost unprecedented 
in a republic. He retired with a reputation and 
popularity hardly inferior to that of Washington. 
He could dictate the foreign and domestic policy 
of seven millions of free and critical people, simply 
by virtue of the personal confidence reposed in his 



284 THOMAS JEFFERSON 

integrity and judgment. It is difficult to suggest 
any other example parallel to this. No personal 
influence of a civilian, not nourished in any degree 
by successful war, has ever been so great and so 
permanent over our people. In a fair measure 
this was deservedly the case, for with all his faults 
Jefferson had very civilized ideas and was the true 
friend of the commonalty. While he regarded 
their welfare as the noblest object of government, 
he did not confer benefits upon them as boons, like 
a political charity done by superiors to inferiors. 
He believed in them ; he esteemed their intelli- 
gence ; he not only respected their power, but ho 
desired to see them use it, because he was firmly 
convinced that they would use it well. He was 
called a demagogue ; but he was not one, if that 
word indicates disingenuousness in preaching popu- 
lar doctrines. Jefferson had a profound and honest 
faith in his avowed principles, expecting indeed to 
gain by them, but only because he thought they 
were fundamentally right and therefore sure in 
time to prevail. He differed from the time-serving 
politician, because he staked his individual success 
upon the success of what he deemed intrinsically 
right principles. He differed even from the states- 
man who acts conscientiously upon every measure, 
inasmuch as, beyond devising specific measures, he 
set forth a broad faith or religion in statesmanship, 
making special measures only single blocks in the 
wide pavement of his road. He was sometimes 
\nsincere, often inconsistent, generally prone to 



PRESIDENT: SECOND TERM 286 

shun hurt and danger to himself ; but from the 
time when he began his great reforms in the Vir- 
ginia House of Burgesses, the general tendency 
and large lines of his purposes and policy held 
with much steadiness in the noble direction of a 
perfect humanitarianism. To this day the multi- 
tude cherish and revere his memory, and in so 
doing pay a just debt of gratitude to a friend who 
not only served them, as many have done, but who 
honored and respected them, as very few have 
done. 



CHAPTER XVin 

AT MONTICELLO: POLITICAL OPINIONS 

Jefferson's interest in public affairs had be- 
come a part of his nature and eould not suddenly 
cease. Accordingly in his retirement he corre- 
sponded constantly with the new President, exer- 
cising an authority in the Republican party not 
altogether unlike that which had been exercised 
by Hamilton, in private life, over the Federalists. 
But in time this relationship caused fault-finding, 
and gave rise to disagreeable insinuations that 
Madison was only the puppet of the ex-President. 
Of course Madison was no man's puppet, but such 
language was so fitted to wound his feelings and 
weaken his prestige that Jefferson, from a sense of 
delicacy, thereafterward greatly curtailed his com- 
munications. 

A few of Jefferson's opinions on public affairs 
deserve to be noted. He anticipated for the new 
administration a peaceful and prosperous career. 
War, indeed, still hovered in his view as a possibly 
" less losing business than unrestricted depreda- 
tion ; " but in his desire to avoid it he advised, in 
the " present maniac state of Europe," not to " es- 
timate the point of honor by the ordinary scale." 



AT MONTICELLO : POLITICAL OPINIONS 287 

Yet he was against making permanent concessions 
of principle ; and when a commercial treaty was in 
prospect he urged Madison not to allow the Eng- 
lish to " whip us into a treaty " as " they did in 
Jay's case and were near doing in Monroe's." 

He indulged in a wonderfid vision of territorial 
aggrandizement. Bonaparte, he said, — 

" would give us the Floridas to withhold intercourse 
with the residue of those [the Spanish] colonies. But 
that is no price ; because they are ours in the first 
moment of the first war ; and until a war they are of 
no particular necessity to us. But, although with dif- 
ficulty, he will consent to our receiving Cuba into our 
Union. . . . That would be a price, and I would imme- 
diately erect a column on the southernmost limit of Cuba 
and inscribe on it ne plus ultra as to us in that direc- 
tion. We should then have only to include the North 
in our confederacy, which would be of course in the first 
war, and we should have such an empire for liberty as 
she has never surveyed since the creation ; and I am 
persuaded no constitution was ever before so well calcu- 
lated as ours fcr extensive empire and self-government.'* 

In 1809 this was tolerably gorgeous day-dream- 
ing! 

He had by this time so far modified his old hos- 
tility to commerce and manufactures as to sayr 
" An equilibrium of agriculture, manufactures, and 
commerce is certainly become essential to our in- 
dependence. Manufactures sufficient for our con- 
sumption, of what we raise the raw material (and 
no more) ; commerce sufficient to carry the surplus 



288 THOMAS JEFFERSON 

produce of agriculture beyond our own consump- 
^on, to a market for exchanging it for articles we 
jannot raise (and no more)." 

He wrote to Gallatin urging him to be persist- 
ent in extinguishing the national debt. " The 
discharge of the debt," he said, " is vital to the 
destinies of our government, and it hangs on Mr. 
Madison and yourself alone. ... I had always 
cherished the idea that you would fix on that ob- 
ject the measure of your fame and of the gratitude 
which our country will owe you." He had a warm 
regard for Gallatin, and when in the winter of 
1810-11 attacks were made on the secretary, and 
seams began to open in the party, Jefferson ex- 
erted all his authority to stay the disagreement. 
He preached conciliation eloquently, and laid down 
a rule of adherence to party which expressed hap- 
pily the middle course between excessive individ- 
ual independence and a sacrifice of conscientious 
opinion. 

In the spring of 1812 Jefferson saw that war 
was imminent. " Our two countries," he wrote to 
an English friend, " are to be at war, but not you 
and I. And why should our two countries be at 
war when by peace we can be so much more useful 
to one another ? Surely the world will acquit our 
government from having sought it. Never before 
has there been an instance of a nation bearing so 
much as we have borne." This was true enough ,• 
Jefferson and Madison had carried endurance far 
past the praiseworthy limit ; they were not account- 
able for the blood-letting to come. 



AT MONTICELLO: POLITICAL OPINIONS 289 

Jefferson contemplated in his usual sanguine 
temper a war which turned out so very disas- 
trously. He modestly hoped that we should con- 
fine ourselves to the defense of our harbors and to 
the conquest of the British possessions in North 
America ! " The acquisition of Canada," he said, 
" this year, as far as the neighborhood of Quebec, 
would be a mere matter of marching, and would 
give us experience for the attack of Halifax the 
next, and the final expulsion of England from the 
American continent." Of course he showed his 
native incapacity for military affairs. " The parti- 
sans of England here," he said, " have endeavored 
much to goad us into the folly of choosing the ocean 
instead of the land for the theatre of war. That 
would be to meet their strength with our own weak- 
ness, instead of their weakness with our strength." 
Quite the reverse of this proved to be the case. 
In spite of his utter failure to appreciate the sit- 
uation, and his incapacity to cope with military 
problems, he was actually " importuned from sev- 
eral quarters to become a candidate for the pre- 
sidency in 1812." So blind was the admiration of 
his partisans ! Further, Mr. Randall also tells us, 
" on the authority of an intimate friend of Mr. 
Madison, who heard the fact from his own lips," 
that Madison offered the position of secretary of 
state to Jefferson. Upon this subject Jefferson 
wrote to Duane, October 1, 1812 : " I profess so 
much of the Roman principle as to deem it hon- 
orable for the general of yesterday to act ass a 



290 THOMAS JEFFERSON 

corporal to-day, if his services can be useful to his 
country ; holding that to be false pride which post- 
pones the public good to any private or personal 
considerations. But I am past service. The hand 
of age is upon me. The decay of bodily faculties 
apprises me that those of the mind cannot but be 
impaired." He continues in this melancholy strain, 
and concludes by expressing his satisfaction that 
he "retains understanding enough to be sensible 
how much of it he has lost and to avoid exposing 
himself as a spectacle for the pity of his friends ; 
that he has surmounted the difficult point of know- 
ing when to retire." . This might have been only an 
excuse, but probably it was not so ; for he was now 
constantly harping upon the failure of his faculties. 
He was glad finally to have peace concluded ; 
he hoped that, " having spared the pride of Eng- 
land her formal acknowledgment of the atrocity of 
impressment, . . . she will concur in a convention 
for relinquishing it." Otherwise the pacification 
could be nothing more than a " truce, determina- 
ble on the first act of impressment of an American 
citizen." He deprecated "the maniac course of 
hostility and hatred " pursued by England toward 
the United States. 

" I hope in God she will change. There is not a 
nation on the globe with whom I have more earnestly 
wished a friendly intercourse on equal conditions. . . . 
I know that their creatures represent me as personally 
an enemy to England. But fools only can believe this, 
OT those who think me a fool. I am an enemy to hex- 



AT MONTICELLO: POLITICAL OPINIONS 291 

insults and injuries. I am an enemy to the flagitious 
principles of her administration, and to those which 
govern her conduct towards other nations. But would 
she give to morality some place in her political code, 
and especially would she exercise decency and, at least, 
neutral passions towards us, there is not, I repeat it, a 
people on earth with whom I would sacrifice so much to 
be in friendship." 

Certainly no man was ever less prone to nourish 
a feud than was Jefferson. He always wanted to 
conciliate, to forgive, to restore lost or shattered 
friendships. About this time he made up his old 
quarrel with John Adams, and was correspond- 
ing with him most cordially. This is only one of 
many instances of an attractive trait in his charac- 
ter, giving a most amiable notion of him, — yet he 
left behind him those venomous " Anas," among 
the most unfortunate of all deeds of the pen. Be- 
neath an universal good-will it is shocking to find 
rankling a vindictiveness so relentless and so igno- 
bly indulged. How differently should we think of 
him, were it not for this bequest, which, like the 
cloven foot, peeps out from beneath his apparent 
guise of broad charity and kindliness ! 

In 1820 he was profoundly disturbed by the 
Missouri Compromise, which seemed to him preg- 
nant with a brood of terrible retributive disasters. 

" This momentous question," he said, " like a fire-bell 
in the night, awakened and filled me with terror. I 
considered it at once as the kneU of the Union. It is 
hushed, indeed, for the moment. But this is a reprieve 



292 THOMAS JEFERSON 

only, not a final sentence." "The coincidence or a 
marked principle, moral and political, with a geographi- 
cal line, once conceived, I feared would never more be 
obliterated from the mind ; that it would be recurring 
on every occasion, and renewing irritations until it would 
kindle such mutual and mortal hatred as to render sepa- 
ration preferable to eternal discord." 

He foresaw civil war. " Are we then to see 
again Athenian and Lacedaemonian confedera- 
cies? To wage another Peloponnesian war ? " Yet 
though he was thus correctly prescient of the 
awful future, he was sadly blind alike to the char- 
acter and to the result of the conflict. " It is 
not," he said, " a moral question, but one merely 
of power. Its object is to raise a geographical 
principle for the choice of a president, and the 
noise will be kept up till that is effected." The 
moral element was still far beneath the surface, 
and common men might not have suspected its ex- 
istence ; but Jefferson should have done so. He 
was not more excusable when he anticipated that 
the North would be the section to suffer most from 
the schism. The Northerners, he predicted, " will 
find the line of separation very different from their 
36° of latitude, and as manufacturing and navi- 
gating States they will have quarreled with their 
bread and butter ; and I fear not that after a little 
trial they will think better of it, and return to the 
embraces of their natural and best friends." Such 
is prophecy in statesmanship. 

Further, he was decidedly of the opinion that 



AT MONTICELLO: POLITICAL OPINIONS 293 

in the compromise Congress interfered unjustifiably 
with states' rights. He condemned the endeavor 
" to regulate the condition of the different descrip- 
tions of men composing a State. This certainly is 
the exclusive right of every State, which nothing 
in the Constitution has taken from them and given 
to the general government." His views concern- 
ing emancipation had apparently undergone little 
change since the early days when he had concocted 
a scheme for it, except that apparently he gave 
greater weight now than previously to the practi- 
cal difficulties. " The cession of that kind of pro- 
perty [slaves] , for so it is misnamed, is a bagatelle 
which would not cost me a second thought, if in 
that way a general emancipation and expatriation 
could be effected ; and gradually and with due 
care, I think, it might be. But as it is, we have 
the wolf by the ears, and can neither hold him 
nor safely let him go." 

In 1821 Jefferson had a sharp revival of his old 
jealousy of the judiciary, and published some let- 
ters on the subject. Later, during the administra- 
tion of J. Q. Adams, he was also greatly annoyed 
by the complete victory of the policy of internal 
improvement. He now gave up this battle as 
hopelessly lost to his side. " The torrent of gen- 
eral ojjinion " he recognized as " irresistible." He 
was very mournful about it. He could not recon- 
cile himself to a liberal construction which seemed 
to him a perversion of the Constitution, no matter 
how great advantages could be gained thereby. 



294 THOMAS JEFFERSON 

Apparently he was also much less tolerant of the 
principle itself than he had been when the enter- 
prises would have fallen beneath his own control, 
and would have brought popularity to his own 
administration. He suggested an absurd way of 
preserving the sanctity of his doctrine in the ab- 
stract, while it was being shattered to fragments 
in practice. He drew up for the Virginia legisla- 
ture a verbose "Declaration and Protest," recit- 
ing the powerlessness of Congress in the premises, 
and closing with an enactment in general terms, 
whereby the State ratified and indorsed, by virtue 
of its own supreme power and authority in such 
matters, all the acts for internal improvements 
which Congress should pass in the future. This 
was silly, but Jefferson was greatly perturbed by 
what he saw going forward. He deemed the 
building of canals and roads with the national 
money a breach of the national compact such as 
might in time even justify a dissolution. For this, 
he said, the provocation was not yet sufficient ; it 
was " the last resoiu-ce, not to be thought of until 
much longer and greater sufferings ; " but it was 
a possibility in the days to come. His alarm was 
groundless, and his cure useless ; construction of 
water-ways and highways could never have pro- 
voked or justified secession. But Jefferson was 
growing old. This is the last of his interferences 
in public affairs which is worthy of mention. 



CHAPTER XIX 

AT MONTICELLO : PERSONAI, MATTERS. — DEATH 

There was a strong theatrical tinge in Jeffer- 
son's composition. When he retired from the 
presidency it was to pose during his old age as the 
" Sage of Monticello," the good and wise old man, 
the benefactor of his kind, the statesman-philoso- 
pher. He recognized that it was proper, nay, in- 
cumbent, and even inevitable, to assume this role ; 
he did it readily, without anxiety as to his perfect 
success in the part, and it must be acknowledged 
that he played it to the end very well. He at first 
expected to be the " hermit of Monticello ; " but 
he soon found that he was of that class of hermits 
whose fame is so great among the nations that all 
the world flocks to gaze at them, so that retreat 
becomes a series of popular levees. The door of 
his mansion, hospitable even beyond Virginian pre- 
cedent, stood ever open, and the stream of visitors 
passed ceaselessly in and out. Relatives came and 
brought their families, fathers and mothers with 
broods of children, and stayed for months ; friends 
treated the generous roof -tree as their own ; people 
of distinction or good social position claimed and 
received briefer entertainment. Ail this was plea* 



296 THOMAS JEFFERSON 

sant, and the gratification given by such visitors 
generally more than offset the inconveniences. 
But it was less agreeable to have the imperfectly 
civilized people at large behave as if Monticello 
were the public domain where the ex-President 
was kept always on exhibition. Every one in the 
United States, of any enterprise, sooner or later 
found his way to this extraordinary " hermitage." 
The following amusing sketch of the household 
occurs in a letter quoted in Eandall's Life : — 

" We had persons from abroad, from all the States of 
the Union, from every part of the State, men, women, 
and children. In short, almost every day for at least 
eight months of the year brought its contingent of 
guests. People of wealth, fashion, men in office, pro- 
fessional men, military and civil, lawyers, doctors, Pro- 
testant clergymen, Catholic priests, members of Con- 
gress, foreign ministers, missionaries, Indian agents, 
tourists, travelers, artists, strangers, friends. Some 
came from affection and respect, some from curiosity, 
some to give or receive advice or instruction, some from 
idleness, some because others set the example." 

The crowds actually invaded the house itself, 
and stood in the corridors to watch Jefferson pass 
from one room to another ; they swarmed over the 
grounds and gaped at him as he walked beneath 
his trees or sat on his piazza. All this was flatter- 
ing, but it was also extremely irksome ; it too 
closely resembled the existence of the beast in the 
menagerie. Yet though Jefferson sometimes fled 
from it for a few days of hiding at a distant farm, 



AT MONTICELLO: PERSONAL MATTERS 297 

he appears wonderfully seldom to have been lack- 
ing in the patient benignity which his part im- 
posed upon him. The most impertinent had their 
gaze out unmolested ; only a few complaints were 
made privately to friends. 

In time that came to pass which Jefferson ought 
to have foreseen in the early stages of this fashion 
of life. He was keeping a large and naturally a 
very popular hotel, at which no guest ever thought 
of paying his score. The housekeeper at times 
had to provide fifty beds ; inevitably the detail of 
slaves for the house and stables left few field 
hands for productive labor ; all the produce of 
the Monticello estate was eaten up by the guests ; 
and of course much other food and drink had to 
be purchased, and much wear and tear to be made 
good. The form of entertainment was necessarily 
simple ; yet Jefferson lived in what was deemed 
good style in that time and neighborhood. Inevi- 
tably beneath these reducing processes his fortune 
steadily and much too rapidly shrank. He had 
also experienced some severe blows. For example, 
the pre-revolutionary debt upon his wife's estate 
was due in England, and the story of its payment 
was very hard, though very honorable to him. In 
order to meet it he sold some of her lands at a 
gold valuation, but finally got the money in paper 
" worth two and a half per cent, of its nominal 
value." This sum he deposited in the state trea- 
sury under a statute, made during the Revolution, 
whereby debts owing to English subjects could be 



298 THOMAS JEFFERSON 

paid to the State, which then assumed the indebt- 
edness and acquitted the debtor. But after the 
close of the war he declined to avail himself of 
this acquittance. 

" I am desirous of arranging with you," he wrote to 
the creditors, " such just and practicable conditions as 
will ascertain to you the terms at which you will receive 
my part of your debt, and give me the satisfaction of 
knowing that you are contented. What the laws of 
Virginia are or may be, will in no wise influence my 
conduct. Substantial justice is my object, as decided by 
reason and not by authority or compulsion. ... I am 
ready to remove all diflBculty arising from this deposit, 
to take back to myself the demand against the State, 
and to consider the deposit as originally made for my- 
self and not for you." 

Thus the discharge of .£3749 12s. ultimately 
"swept nearly half of his estate," while he got 
back from the state treasury so little that he was 
wont to say, concerning the land which he had 
parted with, that he had " sold it for a great coat." 
This costly honesty appears the more creditable, 
because Jefferson's financial resources had been 
much diminished by the ravages of the British 
troops, of which the money value, says Mr. Ran- 
dall, " more than equaled the amount of his Brit- 
ish debt and its interest during the war." 

Subsequently during his public life Jefferson 
sometimes lived on his salary, sometimes exceeded 
it, and only while he was vice-president saved any- 
thing from it. Mr. Kandall estimates his property 



AT MONTICELLO: PERSONAL MATTERS 299 

at $200,000 when he left the presidency, but does 
not make it perfectly clear whether or not this 
ought to be reduced by the deduction of some 
indebtedness. It was a handsome amount ; but a 
part of it consisted of his house and furniture, and 
a very expensive library ; the remainder was lands 
and slaves, from which, after the Monticello estate 
and negroes had been substantially neutralized, as 
has been above explained, the net income was far 
from equal to the demands upon it. Times and 
crops also often went against him. When the 
owner of property thus invested once begins to 
overrun his income, he enters on the road to ruin. 
By degrees Jefferson became a poor man, and 
indeed worse than poor, since he was involved 
in pecuniary embarrassments. Before matters had 
reached this stage he had sold his library to Con- 
gress for 823,950 ; but this restorative did not long 
check the decline. In 1819 an indorsement which 
he had made for his friend, Wilson Gary Nicholas, 
cost him $20,000. This blow consummated his 
ruin. Nicholas is said to have been not blame- 
worthy in the matter, but the victim of ill fortune ; 
and to have been crushed at the disaster which he 
brought upon his friend. The kindness and deli- 
cacy with which Jefferson took especial pains to 
treat him were remarkable, and on one or two 
occasions were actually touching. 

But debts must be paid, no matter how honored, 
good, or distinguished is the debtor, and ex-Presi- 
dent Jefferson occupied no better position than 



300 THOMAS JEFFERSON 

any other planter who was very near insolvency. 
It was an unfavorable time for turning a large 
landed estate into money ; and a sale in ordinary 
fashion would leave Jefferson substantially a pau- 
per, even if not still a debtor. To avoid this he 
desired to resort to a device then scarcely obsolete 
in Virginia. He petitioned the legislature for 
leave to dispose of his property at a fair valuation 
by lottery. By this means, he said, " I can save 
the house of Monticello, and a farm adjoining, to 
end my days in and bury my bones. If not, I 
must sell house and all here and carry my family 
to Bedford, where I have not even a log hut to 
put my head into." When the proposition was 
broached some opposition was threatened, and its 
success was not certain. Jefferson wrote, with 
evident humiliation : " I perceive there are greater 
doubts than I had apprehended, whether the legis- 
lature will indulge my request to them. It is a 
part of my mortification to perceive that I had so 
far overvalued myself as to have counted on it 
with too much confidence. I see," he sadly adds, 
" in the failure of this hope, a deadly blast of all 
my peace of mind during my remaining days." 
But he was spared a disappointment so severe. 
The opposition was feeble, and the authorizing bill 
passed both houses by very gratifying majorities. 
The scheme, however, was not carried out. When 
the news of it spread through the country many 
offers of money were made. Public meetings were 
called, and subscriptions were started in the large 



AT MONTICELLO: PERSONAL MATTERS 301 

cities. It seemed as though the people who, as 
Randall justly remarks, had literally eaten up 
most of the ex-President's property, would now 
restore it to him. Jefferson had repudiated the 
idea of a loan or gift from the state treasury, 
saying : " In any case I wish nothing from the 
treasury. The pecuniary compensations I have re- 
ceived for my services from time to time have been 
fully to my own satisfaction." But these offers of 
voluntary c>ssistance from the people he was grate- 
fully willing to accept. " I have spent three times 
as much money, and given my whole life to my 
countrymen," he said, " and now they nobly come 
forward in the only way they can, to repay me and 
save an old servant from being turned like a dog 
out of doors." " No cent of this is wrung from 
the tax-payer ; it is the pure and unsolicited offer- 
ing of love." 

But though this liberality smoothed Jefferson's 
last days, it had little other effect ; for before it 
had reached that stage at which it could com- 
plete his relief, he died. The debts still hung over 
his estate ; the subscriptions of course ceased ; the 
lottery proved a failure, and the executor had to 
dispose of all the assets. The lands brought ridi- 
culously low prices, — three to ten dollars per acre, 
— and the proceeds did not pay the debts. But 
the executor himself made good the deficit, so 
that no creditor suffered through Jefferson's mis- 
fortunes. 

The chief interest and occupation of Jefferson's 



302 THOMAS JEFFERSON 

last years were concentrated in establishing the 
University of Virginia, of which he was made 
rector. In this business he labored with assiduity 
and success. But he encountered many obstacles 
and had some unworthy mortifications. He was 
especially vexed at the story which got abroad, 
and which impeded his efforts not a little, that he 
designed to give the college an anti-Christian char- 
acter. It is needless to say that he had no such 
purpose ; though he certainly did not intend it to 
be in the control of any especial creed. Jeffer- 
son's religious opinions, both during his lifetime 
and since his death, have given rise to much con- 
troversy. His opponents constantly charged him 
with infidelity, his friends as vigorously denied the 
charge. The discussion annoyed and irritated him ; 
but he would not put an end to it by making any 
statement concerning his belief. It was his private 
affair, he said with some temper, and he would not 
aid in establishing an inquisition of conscience. 
His grandson says that even his own family knew 
no more than the rest of the world concerning his 
religious opinions. One cannot but think that, had 
he been a firm believer in Christianity, he would 
probably not have regarded such reticence as jus- 
tifiable, but would have felt it his duty to give to 
the faith the weight of his Influence, which he well 
knew to be considerable. Nearly all the evidence 
which has been collected falls into the same scale, 
going to show that he was not a Christian in any 
strict sense of that word. It Is true that the phrase 



AT MONTICELLO: PERSONAL MATTERS 303 

bears widely different meanings to different per- 
sons ; but probably the most liberal admissible 
interpretations would hardly make it apply to Jef- 
ferson. Mr. Eandall says that he was a Christian, 
but founds the statement on evidence which goes 
to show only that Jefferson believed in a God or 
Supreme Being who concerned himself about the 
affairs of men. Of course this is by no means 
proof, perhaps not properly even evidence, of a 
belief in Christ. He went to church with tolerable 
regularity ; he spoke with the utmost reverence 
of Christ as a moral teacher ; but he carefully re- 
frained from speaking of him as anything else 
than a human teacher. In the most interesting 
letter which he ever wrote on the subject he says : 
" I am a Christian in the only sense in which 
he [Jesus] wished any one to be ; sincerely at- 
tached to his doctrines in preference to all others ; 
ascribing to himself every human excellence ; and 
believing he never claimed any other." He com- 
pares Christ with Socrates and Epictetus, and says 
that when he died at about thirty-three years of 
age, his reason had "not yet attained the maxi- 
mum of its energy, nor the course of his preaching, 
which was but of three years at most, presented 
occasions for developing a complete system of 
morals. Hence the doctrines which he really de- 
li tiered were defective as a whole ; and fragments 
only of what he did deliver have come to us, muti- 
lated, misstated, and often unintelligible." This 
hardly describes the Christian notion of God's reve- 



304 THOMAS JEFFERSON 

lation. After such language it was not worth while 
to add the saving clause, that " the question of his 
being a member of the Godhead, or in direct com- 
munication with it, . . . is foreign to the present 
view." To my mind it is very clear that Jefferson 
never believed that Christ was other than a human 
moralist, having no peculiar inspiration or divine 
connection, and differing from other moralists only 
as Shakespeare differs from other dramatists, 
namely, as greatly their superior in ability and fit- 
ness for his function. But those admirers of Jef- 
ferson, who themselves believe in the divinity of 
Christ, will probably refuse to accept this view, 
though they find themselves without sufficient evi- 
dence conclusively to confute it. 

Jefferson, in his later years, became much con- 
cerned about the proper historical presentation of 
his times, and of the part played by himself and 
his party therein. He was probably the greatest 
letter-writer who ever lived ; he always wrote freely, 
and expressed himself vigorously. The latter part 
of his life was made a burden by his rule to give a 
full and sufficient answer to every civil letter which 
he received. Inevitably he sometimes fell into in- 
consistencies and errors, and sometimes said things 
which he would afterward wish unsaid. At times 
the thought of all that he had committed to paper 
alarmed him, and he declared that " the treacher- 
ous practice some people have of publishing one's 
letters without leave " should be made " a peniten- 
tiary felony." Yet generally he regarded his own 



AT MONTICELLO: PERSONAL MATTERS 305 

letters, " all preserved," written between 1790 and 
the close of his public life, as a great reservoir 
from which correct information could be drawn by 
posterity. He spoke with extreme acrimony of 
Marshall's " Life of Washington " as a purely par- 
tisan production. He was very much disturbed at 
the prospect of J. Q. Adams editing the writings 
of John Adams. " Doubtless," he said, " other 
things are in preparation, unknown to us. On 
our part we are depending on truth to make itself 
known, while history is taking a contrary set which 
may become too inveterate for correction." Shortly 
before his death he wrote to Madison : " To myself 
you have been a pillar of support through life. 
Take care of me when dead." All this anxiety 
lest the posthumous historical literature of the Fed- 
eralists should have an influence with posterity 
superior to that of the Democrats, comes rather 
queerly from one who had the " Anas " secretly 
locked up in his desk. Yet his fears were justified 
by the event ; the Federalists have to this day been 
more successful than the Republicans in getting 
their side forcibly and plausibly before the reading 
public. 

The weaknesses of old age crept over Jefferson 
very gradually, as they are wont to do over sound 
and vigorous men. He had great dread of a help- 
less, and especially of an imbecile, senility, and 
watched for signs of mental decay with an almost 
morbid apprehensiveness. Certainly he suspected 
more symptoms of this evil than really existed; 



306 THOMAS JEFFERSON 

for though inevitably the vigor of his intellect be- 
came impaired in his extreme years, yet the clear- 
ness of his mind remained even until the weakness 
of the closing hours began to deprive him of all 
knowledge of things earthly. There is very little 
complaining, at least in the published letters writ- 
ten in his last years ; but there is a certain air of 
sombreness and melancholy. He could not well 
find fault with the career which had been allotted 
to him ; but he could hardly recognize cheerfully 
that his usefulness was over, his authority a thing 
of the past, himself, while stiU alive, almost a char- 
acter of history. His power had been too great to 
be cheerfully laid down. He appears to have been 
resigned, courageous, tranquil, and yet one gets 
the idea that as he drifted away from active affairs 
ne was not happy, and that death must have lost 
its terrors for him some time before it actually 
came. The winter of 1826 found him evidently 
fast breaking. In the middle of March he made 
his will. In the spring we hear of him reading in 
the Bible and the Greek tragedies; but he was 
not much longer able to do even this. As the 4th 
of July, 1826, approached he was known by him- 
self, and by aU the affectionate family circle gath- 
ered around him, to be dying. He expressed a 
strong desire to live until that day should dawn; 
yet he seemed so weak, and the last laggard hours 
moved so slowly that his friends, to whom this 
wish of his seemed to have such a sanctity that 
they could not bear to have him disappointed, even 



AT MONTICELLO: PERSONAL MATTERS 307 

in the almost unconscious hour of departure, feared 
that he would not endure so long. But life ebbed 
slowly from that strong frame. It was nearly one 
o'clock on that great day when he expired. John 
Adams died at Quincy a few hours later, with the 
words, " Thomas Jefferson stiU survives," strug- 
gling from his lips at the moment before they 
became silent forever. The triple coincidence of 
the two deaths and the day is more singular than 
anything else of the kind in history. 



INDEX 



^AMS, Abigail, letter of Jefferson 
to, coucerniiig removal of J. Q. 
Adams from office, 199. 

Adams, John, on committee to draft 
Declaration of Independence, 29 ; 
his statement concerning Jefferson's 
authorsliip, 29 ; joins with the Lees 
to oppose Washington, 31 ; leads 
debate in favor of Declaration of 
Independence, 33 ; criticises De- 
claration for lack of originality, 35 ; 
on peace commission, 66 ; commis- 
sioned to make treaties of com- 
merce, 70 ; minister to England, 
70, 72 ; attacked by Jefferson as 
a monarchist, 114; writes "Dis- 
courses of Davila," 117 ; has misun- 
derstanding with Jefferson over 
them, 118 ; Federalist candidate for 
President, 154 ; his election endan- 
gered by lack of party harmony, 
155 ; his inauguration, 157 ; at- 
tempts of Jefferson to win over, 
158 ; consults with Jefferson con- 
cerning French mission, 158, 159; 
suddenly ceases to consult with 
him, 159; angered at French in- 
sults, 1(J0 ; wishing to keep peace. 
Bends a commission, 161 ; announces 
failure of mission, 16S ; loses his 
head over X Y Z affair, 168 ; 
Tuins Federalist party by sending a 
new French mission, 171 ; defeated 
in election of 1800, 178 ; makes 
midnight appointments, 186 ; avoids 
Jefferson's inauguration, 187 ; de- 
nounced by Jefferson for midnight 
appointments, 195 ; his power as 
leader inferior to that of Jefferson, 
235 ; becomes reconciled with Jef- 
ferson, ?fll ; his remark on Jeffer- 
son while dying, 307. 

Adams, J. Q., writes, as " Publicola," 



an attack upon Jefferson, 118 ; coiy 
duct toward office-holders coia- 
pared with that of Jefferson, 194 ; 
turned out of office by Jefferson, 
199 ; abandons Federalists to sup- 
port embargo, 268 ; advises blind 
following of Jefferson, 268 ; his ad- 
ministration condemned by Jeffer- 
son, 293 ; his edition of his father's 
works dreaded by Jefferson, 305. 

Alien Act, passed, 172. 

Ambuscade captures the Grange, 135. 

"Anas," written by Jetierson, their 
character, 98, 99, 102, 291, 305. 

Arnold, Benedict, vain attempt of 
Jefferson to kidnap, 58. 

Bane, National, debate in cabinet 
over, 107, 108. 

" Belinda," love affair of Jefferson 
witli, 8. 

Bishop, Samuel, his appointment to 
office by Jefferson criticised by 
Federalists, 199. 

Bonaparte, Napoleon, plans coloniza- 
tion in Louisiana, 217 ; rejects 
American offers to buy New Or- 
leans, 217 ; abandons colouial 
schemes and offers to sell all Lou- 
isiana, 218 ; his career puts an 
end to Jefferson's French partisan- 
ship, 243 ; issues Berlin and Milan 
decrees, 263 ; Indifferent to em- 
bargo, 272 ; seizes American ships, 
278. 

Bordeaux, Archbishop of, invites 
Jefferson to assist in drawing up a 
constitution for France, 77. 

Botetourt, Lord, dissolves House o( 
Burgesses, 16. 

Burgesses, House of. Bee Legisla- 
ture. 

Biuke, Edmund, emends and print! 



310 



INDEX 



Jefferson's " Summary View," etc., 
19. 

Burr, Aaron, minor leader of Demo- 
crats, 155 ; manages party in New 
York, 176 ; receives equal vote veith 
Jefferson in election of 1800, 178 ; 
not popular vpith Democrats, 181 ; 
intrigues with Federalists in Con- 
gress to be made President, 181, 
182 ; fails and ruins his reputation, 
184 ; contrast with Jefferson, 184, 
185 ; magnanimous letter of Jeffer- 
son to, 184 ; not renominated for 
Vice-President, 239 ; anger of his 
followers, 241 ; kills Hamilton, 249 ; 
plots conquest in the Southwest, 
249; his trial, 249-254; supported 
by Federalists, 250 ; escapes trial in 
Ohio, 253. 

Burwell, Judy, flirtation of Jefferson 
with, 8. 

Caebuarthen, Mabquis of, his eva- 
sive attitude toward Adams and 
Jefferson, 72. 

Callender, James T., refugee from 
England, aided by Jefferson, 200, 
201 ; attacks Washington and the 
Federalists, 201 ; punished under 
Sedition Act, 201 ; released by Jef- 
ferson, 202 ; refused postmaster- 
ship of Richmond by Jefferson, 202 ; 
slanders Jefferson, 202, 203 ; ap- 
plauded by Federalists, 203 ; action 
of Judge Chase at his trial, 232. 

Canada, its conquest looked forward 
to by Jefferson, 287, 289. 

Canning, George, tries to deceive 
Jefferson, as to Orders in Council, 
266 ; condemns his recommendation 
of embargo, 267 ; makes delusive 
and sarcastic remarks on embargo, 
277, 278. 

Carmichael, William, instructed by 
Jefferson to secure from Spain nav- 
igation of the Mississippi, 206. 

Carr, Peter, letter of Jefferson to, on 
religion, 40. 

Carr, Dabney, his children adopted 
by Jefferson, his brother-in-law, 65. 

Cary, Colonel, entertains Jefferson, 
66. 

Chase, Samuel, character and Fed- 



eralist partisanship as jndge, 231, 
232 ; impeached by Democrats, 232 ; 
slightness of their charges, 232, 233 ; 
attack instigated by Jefferson, 233, 
234 ; triumphant in trial before 
Senate, 234. 

Chatham, Lord, on ability of Conti- 
nental Congress, 23. 

Chesapeake, attacked by Leopard, 
264-267. 

Church establishment, attacked by 
Jefferson, 40 ; eventually abolished, 
41. 

Civil service, Jefferson's theory and 
practice in its administration, 194^ 
200. 

Clarke, George Rogers, captures Colo- 
nel Hamilton, 54. 

Clay, Henry, his relations with 
Wythe, 7. 

Clinton,George, minor leader of Demo- 
crats, not available as a presidential 
candidate, 155 ; replaces Burr as 
candidate for vice-presidency, 239; 
elected, 241. 

Committees of Correspondence, estab- 
lished in Virginia, 17. 

Constitution of the United States, 
views of Jefferson concerning its 
adoption, 84-86 ; attitude of Hamil- 
ton concerning, 104, 113 ; division 
of parties over its relation to Bank, 
107 ; attitude of Jefferson toward, 
125, 205 ; strained by Alien and Se- 
dition Acts, 172 ; threatened at time 
of election of Jefferson, 178-180 ; 
violated in purchase of Louisiana, 
218, 223, 227 ; justification of the act, 
226-229 ; its amendment desired by 
Jefferson, 228 ; its relation to Mis- 
souri Compromise, 293 ; to inter- 
nal improvements, 294. 

Congress, Continental, proposed by 
Virginia, 18 ; its character accord- 
ing to Chatham, 23 ; issues mani- 
festo after Bunker Hill, 24 j replies 
to Lord North, 25 ; feels necessity 
for defining its status, 28 ; debates 
independence, 28, 29 ; appoints 
committee to draw up a Declara- 
tion, 29 ; factions in, 30, 31 ; adopts 
resolution of independence, 31, 32 ; 
debates and adopts the Declaratioi^ 



INDEX 



3U 



^2-34 ; decline in character in 1783, 
67 ; ratifies treaty of peace, 67 ; 
appoints a permanent committee of 
States, 67, 68 ; rejects clause prohib- 
iting slavery in new Territories, 69. 

EoDgress of the United States, strug- 
gle in, over assumption of state 
debts, 88, 89 ; influenced by bargain 
of Hamilton and Jefferson, 90 ; 
Hamilton's bribery of, described by 
Jefferson, 109, 111, 113; rejects 
proposed non-importation from 
England, 149 ; debates Jefferson's 
report on commerce, 149 ; ratifies 
Jay treaty, 152 ; House tries to de- 
feat it, 152 ; prepares for war with 
France, 168 ; passes Alien and Sedi- 
tion Acts, 172 ; struggle in, over 
election of Jefferson, 178-183 ; be- 
comes overwhelmingly Democratic, 
193 ; gives Jefferson money and au- 
thority to purchase New Orleans, 
214 ; ratifies purchase of Louisi- 
ana, 222 ; impeaches Pickering, 230, 
231 ; impeaches Chase, 232-234 ; 
how controlled by Jefferson, 235, 
236 ; supports Jefferson's policy 
toward Spain, 247 ; legislates con- 
cerning treason, 254 ; passes non- 
importation act, 257 ; suspends it, 
262 ; adopts embargo, 268 ; resolves 
to maintain it, 278 ; passes bill for 
extra session to settle embargo, 
279 ; finally repeals embargo, 280 ; 
buys Jefferson's library, 299. 

Convention of Virginia. See Legis- 
lature. 

Comwallis, Lord, defeats Gates at 
Camden and threatens Virginia, 55 ; 
forced to retreat, 56 ; plunders one 
of Jefferson's farms, 61 ; surren- 
ders, 62. 

Cuba, its annexation discussed by 
Jefferson, 287. 

Peanb, Silas, on French mission, 66. 

Declaration of Independtince, its pre- 
paration, 29 ; reasons for choice of 
Jefferson as author, 30, 31 ; de- 
bate over, 32-34 ; its merits and 
defects, 34, 35. 

pemocratic party, its origin, 97, 115, 
116 ; Jefferson's theory of, 117 ; its 



platform as described by Jefferson, 
122-126 ; its organization and namei 
129, 132 ; applauds French Revolu- 
tion, 131 ; welcomes Genet, 135 ; 
damaged by Genet's excesses, 141- 
144 ; regains favor after Jay treaty, 
151 ; hopes success in 1796, 153 ; 
lack of leaders in, besides Jefferson, 
155 ; damaged by conduct of France 
in X Y Z affair, 160, 1G7, 168 ; ap- 
proves of Kentucky Resolutions, 
172 ; confident before election of 
1800, 176 ; organized by Jefferson, 
176, 177 ; plans extra-constitutional 
means to defeat FederaUst schemes, 
180 ; pleased with Jefferson's sim- 
plicity, 189 ; rejoices at acquisition 
of Louisiana, 222 ; not concerned to 
sanction it by constitutional amend- 
ment, 228 ; not more democratic in 
government than Federalists, 235 ; 
tends to obey a leader, 236 ; as- 
sumes credit for results of Federal- 
ist policy, 238 ; renominates Jeffer- 
son and abandons Burr for Clinton, 
239 ; growth of factions in, 241 ; 
carries election of 1800, 241 ; divi- 
sion in, caused by Randolph, 247, 
248 ; continues to gain in elections, 
260, 265; supports embargo, 274, 
275 ; finally repeals it, 280. 

Dickinson, John, writes substitute for 
Jefferson's manifesto of Congress 
after Bunker Hill, 24 ; incorporates 
some of Jefferson's work, 25. 

Diplomatic history, Genet's mission 
to the United States, 132-142 ; neu- 
trality proclamation, 133, 134 ; 
Grange episode, 135, 138 ; excesses 
and dismissal of Genet, 140-142 ; 
Jay treaty, 151 ; dealings with 
France, 160 ; X Y Z affair, 167, 168, 
171 ; relations with England, 255- 
257 ; the Leander affair, 257 ; Mon- 
roe's treaty with England in 1806, 
262 ; Leopard affair, 264, 266, 267 ; 
negotiations respecting embargo and 
Orders in Council, 277, 278. 

Duane, William, letter of Jefferson 
to, declining to accept office, 289. 

Dunmore, Earl of, dissolves House of 
Burgesses, 17. 

Dupont de Nemours, letter of JeSev 



812 



INDEX 



Bon to, on reaeons for buying New 

Orleans, 216. 

BuBAROO, recommended by Jefferson, 
266 ; criticised as premature by 
England and Federalists, 267 ; 
adopted by Congress, 268 ; discus- 
sion of its value, 268-275 ; at first 
strongly favored, 269 ; Jefferson's 
arguments for, 269 ; its effect on 
United States, 271 ; its slight effect 
on England, 271, 272 ; innocuous 
to France, 272 ; inconsistent with 
Democratic principles, 273, 274 ; 
responsibility of Jefferson for, 274, 
275 ; increasing violence of opposi- 
tion to, 276, 279 ; remarks of Can- 
ning upon, 277, 278 ; fails to influ- 
ence England, 277 ; its possible re- 
peal considered by Jefferson, 279 ; 
repealed by Congress, 280 ; failure 
as a measure of offense, 280, 281. 

England, attitude toward colonies af- 
ter Gasp6e affair, 16, 17 ; its legal 
relation to colonies, 19, 20 ; prac- 
tices policy of ravaging colonies, 61 ; 
mission of Adams and Jefferson to, 
in 1786, 72; description of its bit- 
terness against America by Jeffer- 
son, 73-76 ; foUy of its policy, 75, 
76; its war with France, 132; re- 
joicings of Jefferson at its difiScul- 
ties, 136, 161 ; retaliation against, 
urged by Jefferson, 149 ; objections 
of Jefferson to its possible seizure 
of Spanish colonies, 209 ; alliance 
with, suggested by Jefferson if 
France hold Louisiana, 211 ; friendly 
feeling of Jefferson for, 243, 244, 
245 ; refuses to admit commercial 
neutrality, 245, 255 ; commits out- 
rages on American merchantmen, 
255, 256, 257 ; non-importation act 
against, adopted, 257 ; would pro- 
bably have fought in 1807 as well as 
1812, 258 ; Monroe's rejected treaty 
with, in 1807, 262 ; determines to 
ruin American commerce, 263 ; tries 
to deceive United States in Leopard 
affair by holding back Orders in 
Council, 266, 267 ; not injured but 
Helped by embargo, 271-273, 277, 
278 ; refuses to modify Orders in 



Council, 278 ; concessions to, by 
Madison, opposed by Jefferson, 278 ; 
its policy toward America in 1813 
denounced by Jefferson, 290, 291. 
Entails, abolished in Virginia, 38. 

Fauquier, Francis, friendship with. 
Jefferson, 7. 

Federalist party, its organization by 
Hamilton, 101 ; accused by Jeffer- 
son of monarchical schemes, 101, 
102, 111, 162, 163; absurdity of this 
attack, 103, 104 ; accused of cor- 
ruption, 105, 106, 109, 111, 123, 
163 ; accuses Jefferson of cowardice 
and backbiting, 126, 127 ; called 
" Anglomaniacs " by Jefferson, 135 ; 
damaged by Jay treaty, 151 ; said 
by Jefferson to be upheld by Wash- 
ington's influence alone, 153, 157 ; 
nominates Adams and Pinckney, 
154 ; fails through dissensions to 
elect Pinckney, 155 ; abundance of 
leaders in, 155 ; strengthened by 
aggressive conduct of France, 160 ; 
denounces Jefferson for Mazzei let- 
ter, 164, 165 ; urges war with 
France, 169 ; passes Alien and Sedi- 
tion Acts, 172 ; slanders Jefferson 
in presidential campaign, 174 ; de- 
feated by dissensions, 175, 177, 178 ; 
tries by technicality to defeat elec- 
tion of Jefferson, 178 ; proposes 
unconstitutional devices, 179 ; in- 
trigues with Burr, 181, 182; 
brought to elect Jefferson by Ham- 
ilton, 182, 183 ; asserts that Jef- 
ferson made pledges, 183 ; makes 
midnight appointments, 186 ; Jeffer- 
son's hopes of reconciling its mem- 
bers, 190, 191, 192 ; its members 
not dismissed from office, as a rule, 
by Jefferson, 194, 195 ; applauds 
Callender's slanders on Jefferson, 
202, 204 ; tries to force war with 
France on issue of Mississippi navi- 
gation, 213, 214 ; objects to pur- 
chase of Louisiana, 219 ; unable to 
force discussion, 222 ; its attacks 
ignored by Jefferson, 227 ; its con- 
trol of federal courts feared by 
Jefferson, 230 ; supports Pickering 
and Chase when impeached, 230' 



INDEX 



313 



234 ; shrinks to a small faction, 239 ; 
badly defeated in election of 1804, 
241 ; supports Burr against " perse- 
cution " of Jefferson, 250, 251 ; as- 
sails Jefferson's rejection of Mon- 
roe's treaty, 263 ; justifies English 
in Leopard affair. 264 ; objects to 
Jefferson's recommendation of em- 
bargo, 267 ; opposes passage of 
ambargo, 2G8 ; attacks embargo as 
tyranny, 273 ; and as anti-English, 
275 ; plans secession, 279 ; said by 
Jefferson to have forced repeal of 
embargo, 280 ; its influence in writ- 
ing history dreaded by Jefferson, 
305. 

Fenno's " Gazette," Federalist organ, 
119. 

Financial history, adoption of Ham- 
ilton's measures, 88, 89 ; their char- 
acter, 94, 95; their effect upon 
people, 105, 106; speculation, 106, 
108, 112 ; economy and financial 
success of Jefferson's administra- 
tion, 237 ; extinction of debt urged 
by Jefferson, 288. 

Florida, its acquisition expected by 
Jefferson, 287. 

Fox, Charles James, forms a Whig 
cabinet, 257 ; friendly attitude of 
Jefferson toward, 257, 262. 

France, mission of Jefferson to, 70, 
76-86 ; attitude toward United 
States after peace, 71 ; revolution 
in, 76-78 ; connection of Jefferson 
with, 77 ; relations to, at outbreak 
of war between i*; and England, 132, 
133 ; friendly policy of Jefferson 
toward, 142, 148, 149 ; insolent con- 
duct of, in Adams's administration, 
160 ; demands satisfaction, 160 ; 
mission of Marshall, Gerry, Pinck- 
ney to, 161, 167, 1C8 ; not held by 
Jefferson to be guilty in X T Z 
affair, 169, 170 ; makes overtures 
for reconciliation, 171 ; war with, 
avoided by Adams, 171 ; suspected 
of intention to regain Louisiana, 
209 ; gains Louisiana from Spain, 
210 ; sells it to United States, 218 ; 
decline of Jefferson's sympathy for, 
243 ; refuses to admit neutrality, I 
%5. 263 ; indifferent to embargo, | 



272 ; confiscates American resselB, 

278. 

Franklin, Benjamin, in Continental 
Congress, 23 ; connection with De- 
claration of Independence, 29, 30 ; 
consoles Jefferson during debate, 
33 ; remark on signing Declaration^ 
34 ; letter of Jefferson to, on change 
of government in Virginia, 36 ; on 
foreign and peace commissions, 66, 
70 ; leaves for America, 70 ; per- 
sonal morality compared to Jeffer- 
son's, 204. 

French Revolution, connection of Jef- 
ferson with, 77-79 ; his sympathy 
for it, 77, 79, 80, 87, 131, 137 ; ab- 
horred by Hamiltonians, 130 ; ap- 
plauded by masses in United States 
131. 

Freneau, Philip, appointed to clerk- 
ship by Jefferson, 119 ; establisiies 
" National Gazette " and attacks 
administration, 119 ; not interfered 
with by Jefferson, 120 ; prints affi- 
davit that Jefferson has no connec- 
tion with his paper, 121 ; Jefferson 
explains his connection with, 124, 
125. 

Fries, action of Judge Chase at his 
trial, 232. 

GALLATnr, Albert, letter of Jefferson 
to, on Hamilton, 94 ; a minor leader 
of Democrats, 155 ; urged by Jeffer- 
son to reduce debt, 288 ; upheld by 
Jefferson in 1811, 288. 

Gasp^e, its burning and results, 16. 

Gates, Horatio, defeated at Camden, 
55. 

Genet, Edmond, arrives in America, 
132 ; his purpose to make United 
States aid France, 133; equips pri- 
vateers, 135 ; his reception by Dem- 
ocrats, 135 ; unwillingly rebuked 
by Jefferson for infringing neutral- 
ity laws, 138 ; makes extravagant 
claims, 139 ; ignores neutrality, 139, 
141 ; angers Jefferson by his folly, 
141 ; his recall demanded, 142 ; ac- 
cuses Jefferson of duplicity, 142. 

George III., Jefferson's opinion of, 
27 ; anti-slavery attack on, in De- 
claration of Independence, struoR 



314 



INDEX 



out, 32 ; his treatment of Adams 
and Jefferson in London, 72, 

Gerry, Elbridge, signs Declaration of 
Independence, 34 ; suggested as en- 
voy to France by Adams, 159 ; urged 
to go by Jefferson, 161 ; in X Y Z 
episode, 167 ; denounced for re- 
maining in Paris after it, 167. 

Giles, W. B., his resolutions of cen- 
sure on Hamilton approved by Jef- 
ferson, 109, 110 ; defends Jeffer- 
son's report on commerce, 149. 

Grange, controversy with Genet over 
its capture, 135, 136, 138. 

Greeue, Gen. Nathanael, aided by Jef- 
ferson in 1780, 52. 

Gunboats, built by Jefferson, their 
character, 259, 260. 

Hamilton, Alexander, his success in 
the cabinet, 88 ; seeks aid from Jef- 
ferson in carrying assumption of 
state debts, 89, 90 ; makes agree- 
ment to trade capital for debts, 90 ; 
later said by Jefferson to have 
deceived him, 91 ; his measures not 
at first comprehended by Jefferson, 
92; his financial methods called a 
" puzzle " by Jefferson, 94, 95 ; his 
schemes carried through before Jef- 
ferson becomes hostile, 95 ; at first 
friendly with Jefferson, 96 ; his 
centralizing policy detected by Jef- 
ferson, 97 ; grows personally hostile 
to Jefferson, 98 ; called a monarch- 
ist by Jefferson, 101, 102; and an 
enemy of the Constitution, 104 ; 
suspected of organizing corruption, 
106 ; argues in favor of bank, 107 ; 
his methods of bribery described by 
Jefferson, 110, 111-115, 124; his 
followers compared to Jefferson's, 
116 ; his report on manufactures, 
113; alleged remarks of, on Consti- 
tution, 113, 123; charged with wish- 
ing to make debt perpetual, liO, 
112, 124 ; annoyed at Freneau's at- 
tacks, 120 ; attacks Jefferson under 
title of "An American," 121; ac- 
cuses him of disloyalty to Constitu- 
tion, 121 ; refuses to notice Freneau, 
121 ; accused of intermeddling in 
Jefferaon's department, 123, 140; 



praised by Federalists for not at> 
tacking Jefferson to Washington, 
126, 127 ; too strong for Jefferson 
in cabinet, 128 ; dislikes French 
Revolution, 130, 131 ; relies on 
wealthy and inteUigent classes, 131 ; 
favors England, 133 ; called " An- 
glomaniac " by Jefferson, 135,136; 
as " Camillus " defends Jay treaty, 
151 ; his influence dreaded by Jef- 
ferson, 151 ; his loss of control over 
Federalists foreseen by Jefferson, 
157 ; exercises influence to prevent 
election of Burr in place of Jeffer- 
son, 182 ; exposed by Callender, 
201, 203 ; personal morality com- 
pared with Jefferson's, 204 ; credit 
for results of his financial policy 
claimed by Jefferson, 237, 238. 

Hamilton, Colonel Henry, captured 
and put in irons by Jefferson, 54 ; 
his release advised by Washington, 
54. 

Hancock, John, remarks on signing 
Declaration of Independence, 34. 

Harrison, Benjamin, signs Declara- 
tion of Independence, 34. 

Hay, George, counsel for government 
in Burr treason case, 252, 253. 

Henry, Patrick, his friendship with 
Jefferson, 15 ; inspires him by hia 
eloquence, 15 ; neglects to present 
Jefferson's resolutions to conven- 
tion, 18, 19 ; career as first gov- 
ernor of Virginia, 51, 52, 54. 

Impeachment, of Pickering, 230, 231 ; 
of Chase, 231-234. 

Independence, of colonies, disclaimed 
by Jefferson, 25, 27 ; attitude of 
public men toward it, 26 ; its pos- 
sibility foreseen by Jefferson, 27. 

Internal improvements, suggested as 
advisable by Jefferson, 261 ; later 
denounced by him as unconstitu- 
tional, 294. 

Jackson, Andrew, compared with JeL 
ferson, 132, 194. 

Jacobins, name assumed by Ameri- 
cans, 137 ; their massacres in France 
condoned by Jefferson, 137. 

Jay, John, superseded by Jefferson as 



INDEX 



315 



document writer of Congress, 24; 
an opponent of R. H. Lee in Con- 
gress, 31 ; on peace commission, 66 ; 
acts as temporary secretary of state, 
88 ; his treaty condemned by JefEer- 
son, 151 ; proposed as president pro 
tempore in 1800 to defeat Jefierson, 
179, 180. 

JeSerson, Martha, consoles Jefferson 
for death of liis wife, 65 ; at school 
in Paris, 70. 

Jefferson, Mary, second daughter of 
Jefferson, 65. 

Jefferson, Peter, father of Thomas Jef- 
ferson, character and career, 3, 4 ; 
connection with Randolph family, 
3 ; his estates, 3 ; death, 4. 

Jefferson, Thomas, birth, 2 ; ancestry, 
2, 3 ; appearance in youth, 4 ; taste 
for sport and music, 4, 6 ; studies 
at WiUiam and Mary College, 5 ; his 
habits of life there, 5 ; his intellec- 
tual interests, 5, 6 ; reads law with 
Wythe, 6, 7 ; his friends, 7 ; his 
youthful correspondence and love 
affairs, 7, 8 ; marries, 9 ; gains pro- 
perty, 8, 9 ; succeeds at the bar, 9, 
10 ; love of farming, 10-13 ; high 
estimate of its place in society, 10, 
11 ; dreads cities and artificers, 11, 
12 ; keen observation of agriculture, 
12 ; desires to make innovations, 
13 ; his utilitarian imagination, 13 ; 
youthful tendency toward roman- 
ticism and Ossian, 13, 14 ; inti- 
mate with Henry, 15 ; impressed by 
Henry's speech against Stamp Act, 
15. 

Revolutionary Leader in Virginia. 
Elected to House of Burgesses, 16 ; 
draws resolutions in reply to gov- 
ernor's speech, 16 ; signs non-impor- 
tation agreement, 16 ; reelected, 16 ; 
joins with radicals in appointing a 
committee of correspondence, 17 ; 
distrusts old leaders, 17 ; joins in 
passing resolution to appoint fast 
day after Boston Port Bill, 18; 
elected to colonial convention, 18; 
describes method of leadership, 
18 n. ; his draft of instructions for 
Virginian members of Congress not 
approved by Henry, 19; but pre- 



sented by Randolph, adopted, and 
printed, 19 ; his pamphlet circu- 
lated in England, 19 ; his radical 
argument against parliamentary su* 
premacy, 19, 20 ; considered a 
traitor in England, 21 ; his position 
too radical for Virginia, 21 ; elected 
alternate delegate to Continental 
Congress, 21 ; remains in Virginia 
to draft reply to North's "concilia- 
tory proposition," 21, 22. 

Member of Continental Congress. 
His reputation as a writer, 23 ; not 
a debater, 23, 24 ; supersedes Jay as 
document-writer, 24 ; drafts mani- 
festo after Bunker Hill, 24 ; his 
paper revised by Dickinson, 24, 25 ; 
writes reply of Congress to Lord 
North's " conciliatory proposition," 
25 ; reelected to Congress, 25 ; fore- 
sees but dreads independence, 26 ; 
states his position in letter to Ran- 
dolph, 26, 27 ; holds George III. 
responsible for situation, 27, 28; 
states reason for postponing debate 
on Lee's resolutions of independ- 
ence, 29 ; elected chairman of com- 
mittee to draft Declaration, 29 ; his 
authorship, 29, 30 ; selected instead 
of Lee, because of his fitness and 
absence of enemies in Congress, 30, 
31 ; sensitive during debate over 
the Declaration, 33 ; describes pro- 
saic reasons for closure of debate, 
33, 34 ; charged with lack of origi- 
nality, 35 ; his defense, 35 ; declines 
reelection to Congress, 36. 

Member of Virginia Legislature. 
Desires to reform colonial govern- 
ment, 36 ; describes ease of change 
in Virginia, 36, 37 ; importance of 
his influence at this time, 37 ; brings 
in bill to establish courts, 38 ; in- 
troduces bill abolishing entail, 38 ; 
follows it with one against primo- 
geniture, 39 ; his motives, 39 ; hated 
by aristocrats, 39 ; his religious at- 
titude, 40 ; attacks the Established 
Church, 41 ; defeated at the outset, 
succeeds eventually, 41 ; acts as 
representative of dissenting lower 
classes, 41, 42 ; his ability to detect 
pofKil'ir feeling, 42 ; chairmaa of 



316 



INDEX 



committee to revise laws of Vir- 
ginia, 42, 43; proposes improved 
naturalization, penal code, and pop- 
ular education, 43 ; final carrying 
out of his proposals, 43, 44 ; opposes 
elavery, 44, 45 ; proposes a plan for 
emancipation and deportation, 44, 
45 ; his ideas too visionary, 46 ; con- 
eiders free coexistence of races im- 
possible, 46, 47, 48 ; dreads future 
revolution, 48 ; but declines to take 
personal steps against slavery, 48, 
49 ; introduces bill to prohibit slave 
trade, 49. 

Oovernor of Virginia. Elected 
governor over Page, 51 ; character 
of his administration, 51, 52 ; finds 
State exhausted, 52 ; calls for re- 
cruits for Greene, 52 ; his property 
impressed, 53 ; unjustly blamed for 
sending troops South, 53 ; confines 
Colonel Hamilton in irons, 54 ; 
threatens retaliation of British bru- 
tality upon prisoners, 54 ; unable 
to procure arms for defense of 
State, 55 ; inactive in face of threat- 
ened invasion, 56 ; alarmed at at- 
tack, tries in vain to assemble mili- 
tia, 57 ; not a military success, 57 ; 
tries to kidnap Arnold, 58 ; discour- 
aged at situation, resolves to decline 
reelection, 58 ; opposes plan to name 
a dictator, 59 ; obliged to hold over 
in default of a successor, 59 ; threat- 
ened by Tarleton, his cool conduct, 
59, 60 ; angered at imputation of 
cowardice, 60 ; his farm devastated 
by British, 61 ; threatened with le- 
gislative investigation, 62; secures 
election to legislature and demands 
rehabilitation, 62 ; finally thanked 
by resolution, 63 ; praised by Wash- 
ington, C3; his actual deserts, 03; 
determines to retire, 64 ; writes 
"Notes on Virginia," 64 ; criticised 
for not attending legislature, 64 ; 
rebuked by Madison and Monroe, 
64 ; aflaicted by death of wife, 65 ; 
his children, 65 ; adopts children 
of brother-in-law, 65 ; his affection 
for them, 66 ; declines nomination 
as envoy to France, 66 ; and also 
place on peace commission, 66 ; ac- ' 



cepts second appointment but doet 

not leave America, 67. 

Member of Congress of Confeder- 
ation. Elected to Congress, 67 ; 
secures ratification of treaty of 
peace by nine States, 67 ; arranges 
ceremonial of Washington's resig- 
nation, 67 ; proposes a committee 
of States to act during recess, 67 ; 
criticises impracticable financial 
scheme of Morris, 68 ; presents 
Virginia's cession of Northwestern 
claims, 68 ; draws report for gov- 
ernment of Northwest, 68 ; sug- 
gests fantastic names for new 
States, 69. 

Minister to France. Appointed to 
aid Franklin and Adams in negotia- 
ting treaties of commerce, 70 ; his 
life in Paris, 70 ; appointed resident 
minister, 71 ; tries to secure 'X)m- 
mercial advantages, 71 ; irritated 
by creditors of the United States, 
71, 72 ; protests against payment 
of tribute to African corsairs, 72 ; 
makes diplomatic visit to London, 
72 ; describes English hatred and 
contempt for America, 73 ; angered 
at disrepute of the States in Europe, 
74 ; fears a renewal of war with 
England, 74, 75 ; justice, in spite of 
exaggeration, of his views, 75, 76 ; 
admits excellence of English gov- 
ernment, 76 ; his pleasant life in 
France, 76 ; takes keen interest in 
French Revolution, 77 ; friendly 
with the liberal reformers, 77 ; re- 
cognized as a " philosopher," 77 ; 
advises the National Assembly, 77, 
78 ; abstains from too great inter- 
ference, 78 ; compromised through 
Lafayette, 78, 79; his political 
views not formed in France, 79, 80 ; 
but intensified by his experience, 
80 ; longs for home, 80 ; idealizes 
America in comparison with Eu- 
rope, 81 ; approves of Shays's rebel- 
lion and rebellion in the abstract, 
81,82; writes in approval of "no 
government," S3 ; disapproves of 
federal Constitution, 84 ; later ad" 
vocates its ratification, 84, 85 ; re- 
joices at its adoption, 85 ; states hii 



INDEX 



317 



position to be in the main favorable, 
85, 86 ; his main objections, 86 ; 
returns to Virginia, 87. 
Secretary of State. Accepts Wash- 
ington's offer of secretaryship of 
state, 87 ; enters office in 1790, 
87 ; agrees to help Hamilton ar- 
range a deal to save assumption of 
state debts, 90 ; later regrets his 
action, 90, 91 ; asserts that he was 
outwitted by Hamilton, 91 ; untena- 
bility of his claim of ignorance, 91, 
92 ; yet he really fails to compre- 
hend at the time the significance 
of the measure, 92 ; his lack of 
financial ability, 93 ; holds that no 
public debt should outlast the gen- 
eration creating it, 93, 94 ; accuses 
Hamilton of purposely making his 
schemes confused, 94, 95 ; his ina- 
bility to criticise Hamilton's mea- 
bures specifically, 95 ; not looked 
upon by Washington as antagonistic 
to Hamilton, 96 ; with development 
of Hamilton's plans, begins to 
dread their centralization, 97 ; or- 
ganizes an opposition, 98 ; later 
bitter personal relations with Ham- 
ilton, 98 ; writes " Anas " to de- 
fame memory of his enemies, 98, 
99 ; his position as politician and 
statesman, 100 ; an extreme demo- 
crat, 100 ; called visionary and dis- 
honest, 100 ; elements of slyness in 
his character, 100, 101 ; honesty of 
his democracy, 101 ; abhors advo- 
cates of strong government, 101 ; 
dreads Hamilton as a monarchist, 
101, 102 ; accuses entire cabinet of 
desiring royalty, 102, 103 ; base- 
lessness of his statement, 103 ; dis. 
torts Washington's defense of Ham- 
Uton into an acknowledgment, 104 ; 
probably deceives himself into be- 
Ueving his statements, 104, 105; 
horrified at speculation caused by 
Hamilton's measures, 106 ; dislikes 
miUtary establishment and excise, 
106 ; argues to Washington the un- 
constitutionality of the bank, 107 ; 
logic of his argument, 107 ; fails to 
understand financial significance of 
bank, 108 ; accuses Hamilton of 



founding measures on corruption, 
109 ; analyzes corrupt character of 
Hamiltouian majority in House, 109 ; 
sympathizes with Giles's resolution! 
of censure, 109, 110 ; suspects Ham- 
ilton of trying to make national 
debt perpetual, 110 ; writes to 
Washington complaining of monar- 
chical purposes of public finances, 
111, 112; explains Hamilton's 
method of controlling House by a 
corrupt squadron, 112, 113, 114 ; 
attacks Hamilton's report on man- 
ufactures, 113 ; attacks Adams in 
a letter to Washington, 114 ; de- 
scribes monarchists to Mason, 
Paine, and Lafayette, 114, 115; 
relies on the mass of the people, 
115 ; foresees success, 116 ; expects 
to control the crowd, 116 ; does not 
foresee results of democracy, 117 ; 
involved in difficulties with Adams 
over his introduction to Paine's 
" Rights of Man," 118 ; tries to 
soothe Adams, 118 ; appoints Fre- 
neau to a clerkship, 119 ; accused by 
Hamilton of responsibility for Fre- 
neau's paper, 120 ; disclaims it, but 
approves paper, and refuses to in- 
terfere with Freneau, 120 ; attacked 
by Hamilton, as " American," 121 ; 
exculpated by Freneau, 121 ; refuses 
to reply, 122 ; replies to Washing- 
ton's appeal for concord, analysis of 
his letter, 122-126 ; its honesty and 
falsity, 126 ; accused of cowardice 
and intrigue, 127 ; his action as nat- 
ural and laudable as Hamilton's, 
127, 128 ; does not conceal senti- 
ments, 128 ; unable to contend with 
Hamilton in finance, 128 ; irritated 
at Hamilton's encroachments on his 
field, 128 ; admitted leader of op- 
position, 129 ; sympathizes with 
French Revolution in spite of its 
excesses, 130, 131 ; feels sure of vic- 
tory on this issue over Federalists, 
131, 132 ; wishes word " neutrality " 
not employed in proclamation of 
neutrality, 133 ; chagrined at Ran- 
dolph's drafting of proclamation, 
134 ; angered at Randolph's failura 
always to uphold him, 134; con* 



818 



INDEX 



demns proclamation, 134, 135 ; ap- 
proves Genet's behavior on arrival 
in America, 135 ; calls Hamilton 
" Anglomaniac " as well as mon- 
archist, 135 ; rejoices in damage to 
England, 136 ; and in success of 
French armies, 137 ; approves of 
Jacobins, 137 ; obliged to rebuke 
Genet officially, 138, 139 ; rejoices 
at terms of Genet's commission, 
138 ; urges prepayment of French 
debts, 139, 140 ; rejoices at popular 
French sjTnpathy, 140 ; complains 
of Hamilton's efforts to enforce 
neutrality, 140 ; begins to be an- 
noyed by Genet's actions, 141 ; 
dreads that his excesses may cause 
an anti-French reaction, 141 ; con- 
demns him and agrees to demand 
for his recall, 141, 142; accused by 
Genet of duplicity, 142 ; continues 
to favor France, 142 ; sagacity of 
his conduct, 142 ; not more preju- 
diced than Hamilton, 143 ; realizes 
transitory character of Democratic 
follies, 143 ; avoids condemning his 
party and trusts to time, 144 ; after 
reaction remains undamaged by any 
errors, 144 ; weary of cabinet strife, 
tries to resign, 145 ; persuaded by 
Washington to delay, 145 ; unjustly 
blamed for resigning, 145, 146. 
Jn Retirement. Rejoices in re- 
turn to farm life, 148 ; continues to 
condemn England's policy, 148, 149 ; 
assails Senate for rejecting non- 
importation bill, 149 ; his arguments 
for preferring French to English 
trade, 149 ; vexed at " persecution " 
of democratic societies, 150 ; la- 
ments Washington's political errors 
in condemning democratic clubs, 
150; sympathizes with "Whiskey 
Insurrection," 161 ; abhors Jay 
treaty, 151 ; implores Madison to 
oppose Hamilton's " Camillus " pa- 
pers, 151 ; considers Hamilton a 
•' host in himself," 152 ; favors at- 
tempt to defeat Jay treaty in House, 
152 ; feels certain that only Wash- 
ington's personality holds Federal- 
ists together, 153 ; hopes for success 
in presidential election, 163 ; Re- 



publican candidate for President^ 
155 ; elected Vice-President over 
Pinckney, 155. 

Vice-President. Protests his mi- 
willingness to servo, 156 ; his osten- 
tatious simplicity in accepting of- 
fice, 157 ; feels sure of early succesa 
of Republicans, 157 ; rejoices at 
Washington's withdrawal, 157 ; tries 
to establish friendly relations with 
Adams, 158 ; congratulates Adama 
on defeat of Hamilton's schemes, 
158 ; consulted by Adams as to 
French mission, 158, 159 ; declines 
to go himself, 159 ; his relations 
with Adams end abruptly, 159 ; 
rumor that the failure to elect him 
President would lead France to de- 
clare war, 160 ; fears war with 
France, 161 ; rejoices at Bonaparte's 
victories, 161 ; urges Gerry to go 
on French mission, 161, 162; dreads 
monarchy as probable result of war, 
162 ; describes political bitterness 
of times, 162 ; his letter to Maz- 
zei published, 162, 163 ; in it de- 
scribes monarchical party, 163 ; de- 
nounced by Federalists for tradu- 
cing Washington, 164 ; denies that 
he meant Washington, 164 ; apocry- 
phal story of the quarrel, 164 ; does 
not seem to have been unfair to 
Washington, 165 ; underrates his 
ability, 165 ; criticism of his con- 
duct in not restraining Republican 
newspaper attacks, 166 ; shocked at 
X Y Z exposure, 169 ; does not lose 
faith in France, 169 ; his honesty 
of conviction, 169, 170 ; willing to 
wait for time, 170 ; hopes that the 
country will be overawed, 171 ; out- 
raged by Alien and Sedition Acts, 

172 ; writes Kentucky Resolutions, 
172 ; his position theoretical, not 
practical, 172 ; condemns secession, 

173 ; expects a close election in 
1800, 174 ; slandered during cam- 
paign by Federalists, 174 ; his re- 
ply, 174, 175 ; his mastery of Re- 
publican party, 176 ; does not con- 
template danger of a tie vote, 177, 
178 ; his anxiety and fear of Feder- 
alist coup d'ilat, 178, 179 ; ezplaina 



INDEX 



319 



what he would have done in case 
Federalists prevented an election, 
179 ; both threatens and repudiates 
force, 180 ; plan of Federalists to 
supplant him by Burr, 181 ; his 
election secured by Hamilton, 182 ; 
feels no gratitude, 182 ; said to 
have made terms, 183 ; his beha- 
vior honorable, especially toward 
Burr, 184. 

President. Supposed by Federal- 
ists to be pledged not to turn out 
officials, 186 ; simplicity of his in- 
auguration, 187 ; disgusts British 
ambassador by negligent dress, 187, 
188; reasons for this action, 189; 
anticipates a prosperous administra- 
tion, 189 ; hopes by good-will to 
break down parties, 189, 190; ex- 
pects support from moderate Fed- 
eralists, 190, 191, 192; event- 
ual consummation of this wish, 
191 ; in 1798 thinks New England 
hopeless, 192 ; rejoices in Demo- 
cratic success in New England 
States, 193 ; antipathy toward New 
England clergy, 193 ; refuses to re- 
move all Federalists from office, 
194 ; plans to fill vacancies with 
Republicans, 195 ; decides upon re- 
moval of Federalists appointed after 
December 12, 195 ; and of Federal 
attorneys and marshals, 196 ; dis- 
likes turning people out of office, 
197 ; admits only a few removals 
for political reasons, 198 ; later de- 
cides to remove such as " oppose 
the national will," 198 ; removes J. 
Q. Adams, 199 ; his care in making 
nominations, 199 ; condemns politi- 
cal action of office-holders, 199, 200 ; 
assists Callender in attacking Fed- 
eralists, 201 ; on becoming Presi- 
dent, pardons Callender, 202; re- 
mits his fine on ground of unconsti- 
tutionality of Sedition Act, 202 ; 
refuses to remove a postmaster in 
order to give Callender a place, 
202; attacked by Callender, 203; 
calumnies of Callender repeated 
against him by Federalists, 203 ; 
not in reality profligate, 204 ; not a 
worshiper of the Constitution, 206 ; 



his high opinion of importance of 
Mississippi navigation, 206 ; in 1790 
urges Carmichael to demand from 
Spain a port at river's mouth, 206- 
208 ; his credit for Pinckney's Span- 
ish treaty, 208 ; foreshadows Mon- 
roe doctrine in objections to Eng- 
lish seizure of Louisiana, 209; sus- 
pects French intention to regain 
Louisiana, 209, 210 ; chagrined at 
Spain's cession in 1800, 210 ; writes 
that if France holds New Orleans it 
will cause an alliance between the 
United States and England, 211 ; 
directs Livingston not to menace 
France, 212 ; sympathizes with an- 
ger of Western men at closure of the 
Mississippi, 213 ; annoyed at efforts 
of Federalists to bring on war with 
France, 213 ; receives authority 
and money from Congress, 214; 
plans to buy New Orleans ana some- 
thing more, 214 ; sends Monroe as 
special emissary, 215 ; gives hia 
verba] instructions, 216 ; explains 
his position to Dupont de Nemours, 
216, 217 ; entitled to credit of en- 
voy's action in buying all Louisiana, 
219 ; answers objections to treaty, 
220; foresees future expansion of 
West, 220 ; and acquisition of Flor- 
ida, 220 ; orders forcible occupa- 
tion of territory, 221 ; advises silence 
regarding constitutional objections, 
222 ; given power to govern tempo- 
rarily, 222 ; his conduct clearly un- 
constitutional, 222, 223 ; at variance 
with his interpretation of the Con- 
stitution, 223 ; and with his theory 
of state rights, 224 ; he does not 
perceive inconsistency, 224 ; not 
concerned with possible secession of 
West, 225 ; his course the only 
statesmanlike one, 226 ; execrated 
by Federalists, 227 ; admits uncon- 
stitutionality of his act, 227, 228 ; 
wishes ratification by an amend- 
ment, 228 ; true to his political 
principle of following the popular 
will, 228, 229 ; personal animosities 
toward " monocrats," New England 
clergy, and Federalist judges, 230 ; 
wishes to curb latter, 230 i securet 



S20 



INDEX 



impeachment and remoyal of Judge 
Pickering, 230, 231 ; resolves to at- 
tack Chase of Supreme Court, 231, 
232 ; avoids taking responsibility, 
but instigates Randolph to act, 233, 
234 ; chagrined at failure of im- 
peachment, 234 ; great apparent 
success of his first term, 235 ; his 
great personal influence, 235 ; skill 
and modesty of his guidance of 
Congress, 225, 236 ; impressiveness 
of hia absence of ceremony, 237 ; of 
his reduction of army and navy, 
237 ; assumes credit for results of 
Hamilton's policy, 237, 238 ; renom- 
inated for presidency, 239 ; his 
reasons for accepting a second term, 
239, 240 ; wishes vindication, 240 ; 
despises Federalist intrigues, 241 ; 
reelected by overwhelming major- 
ity, 241 ; this election the height of 
his career, 242 ; enters office with 
confidence, 242; expects to smooth 
foreign difficulties by fair dealing, 
243 ; altered attitude toward France 
under Napoleon, 243 ; tends to 
view England more favorably, 243, 
244 ; feels horror at any connection 
of America with European politics, 
244 ; hopes to use commercial influ- 
ence, 244 ; wishes friendly relations 
with England, 245 ; wishes to settle 
eastern boundary of Louisiana by 
purchase, 246 ; surprised at Ran- 
dolph's defection, 246, 247 ; satis- 
fied with eventual success, 247 ; his 
inconsistency the cause of Ran- 
dolph's revolt, 248 ; not alarmed by 
Burr's scheme, 249 ; interested in 
Burr's trial, 250 ; accused by Fed- 
eralists of persecuting Burr from 
personal spite, 250 ; attacked by 
Luther Martin, 251 ; ordered by 
judges to testify as witness, 251 ; 
refuses to obey the writ, 252 ; his 
argument, 252, 253; orders Hay to 
take down testimony, 253 ; submits 
matter to Congress, 254 ; his pacific 
attitude toward England and France, 
255, 256 ; reports British outrages, 
256 ; secures passage of Non-impor- 
tion Act, 257 ; orders Leander out 
of American waters, 257 ; sends 



apologetic note to X!ngland, 2B7^ 
258 ; his lack of fitness for the situ- 
ation, 258 ; favors building of gun- 
boats, 259, 260 ; adopts threatening 
tone toward Spain, 259, 260 ; con- 
tinues to receive increased popular 
support, 260 ; suggests a constitu- 
tional amendment to authorize in- 
ternal improvements, 261 ; hia rea- 
sons, 262 ; advises suspension of 
Non-importation Act, 262, 263 ; re- 
jects treaty of Monroe and Pinck- 
ney, 262, 263; attacked for auto- 
cratic methods, 263 ; exasperated at 
Leopard-Chesapeake affair, 264 ; de- 
mands reparation and prepares for 
war, 265 ; slightness of his prepara- 
tion, 265 ; waits for England's reply, 
266 ; reoommends to Congress an 
embargo, 266 ; question as to hia 
knowledge of Orders in Council, 
266, 267 ; his policy followed blindly 
by Congress, 268 ; his arguments 
in favor of embargo, 269 ; expects 
it to damage England, 269 ; over- 
looks effects on seaboard cities, 269, 
270 ; fails to realize that he is help- 
ing English commerce, 271 ; dam- 
ages commerce through ignorance, 
not malice, 273; does not reali2,e 
inconsistency with democratic prin- 
ciples, 273, 274 ; his supremacy over 
Congress renders him responsible 
for lack of war preparations, 274, 
275 ; stupidly criticised by Federal- 
ists, 275 ; calls embargo last step 
before war, 276 ; urges secretary of 
war to use force in suppressing 
New England discontent, 276 ; real- 
izes failure of embargo to affect 
England, 277 ; distrusts Canning, 
277 ; submits matter to Congress 
and disclaims further responsibility, 
277 ; does not report English and 
French insults, 278 ; does not wish 
war, but a permanent embargo, 278 ; 
his policy overwhelmingly indorsed 
by Congress, 278 ; admits the near 
end of embargo, 279 ; dreads war 
as a danger to national prosperity, 
280 ; considers repeal of embargo a 
defeat, 280 ; anxious to escape from 
situation, 281 ; seems to have aban> 



INDEX 



321 



doned leadership, 281 ; glad to leave 

presidency, 281, 282 ; continues to 
have immense prestige, 282 ; his in- 
fluence in choice of Madison as suc- 
cessor, 282 ; his relations with Mon- 
roe, 282, 283 ; declines a third term, 
283 ; his immense popularity, 283 ; 
a statesman, not a demagogue, 
284 ; reasons for his hold over the 
masses, 284, 285. 

Jn Jielirement. Continues to ad- 
vise Madison and the party, 286; 
later relations with Madison, 286 ; 
anticipates peace, 286 ; opposes too 
great subservience to England, 287 ; 
looks forward to acquisition of 
Florida, Cuba, and Canada, 287 ; 
begins to admit usefulness of manu- 
factures, 287 ; urges extinguishing 
of national debt, 288 ; his regard for 
Gallatin, 288 ; holds England re- 
sponsible for war of 1812, 288 
wibhes United States to attack Can^ 
ada and abandon the ocean, 289 
urged to be candidate for presi- 
dency in 1812, 289 ; offered secre 
taryship of state by Madison, 289 
declines it, 290 ; rejoices at peace of 
Ghent, 290 ; wishes friendship with 
England, 290, 291 ; reconciled with 
Adams, 291 ; alarmed at Missouri 
question, 291 ; foresees a division 
between North and South, 292 ; but 
expects North to be defeated, 292 ; 
condemns Missouri Compromise as 
an infringement of state rights, 293 ; 
sees difficulties in way of eman- 
cipation, 293 ; his continued jeal- 
ousy of judiciary, 293 ; opposes in- 
ternal improvements, 293 ; suggests 
that Virginia ratify congressional 
acts for internal improvement, 294 ; 
thinks this question may lead to 
disunion, 294 ; his position as " Sage 
of Monticello," 295; his hospitality, 
295; mixed character of his visit- 
ors, 296 ; endures it patiently, 297 ; 
his estate suffers, 297 ; pays pre- 
Revolutionary debts of his wife, 297, 
298 ; financially ruined by Nicholas, 
299 ; asks legislature for permission 
to seU estate by lottery, 300 ; re- 
fusea public aid, but receives volun- 



tary private gifts, 300, 301 ; final 
liquidation after his death, 301 ; 
connection with Dniversity of Vir- 
ginia, 301, 302 ; charged with pur- 
pose to give it an anti-Christian 
character, 302 ; his religious views, 
302 ; a deist, not a trinitarian, 303, 
304 ; anxiety concerning proper his- 
torical presentation of his times, 
304 ; views regarding his own cor- 
respondence, 304 ; condemns works 
of Marshall and J. Q. Adams, 305 ; 
leaves his posthumous reputation 
in hands of Madison, 305 ; his 
dread of mental decay, 305 ; regrets 
loss of power and influence, 306; 
last days and death, 306, 307. 

Characteristics. Affectionatenesa, 
65, 66 ; business honesty, 174, 297, 
298; courage, 59, 60, 202; discre- 
tion, 7, 49, 68, 78, 122, 142, 164, 
233, 249; disingenuousness, 98, 99, 
100, 103, 127, 142, 166, 169, 201, 240, 
285 ; education, 6 ; financial weak- 
ness, 93, 95, 108, 128; grandilo- 
quence, 39, 49, 187, 260 ; hospitality, 
295, 297; imagination, 13, 287; in- 
ventiveness, 13 ; legal ability, 7, 9, 
107; literary abiUty, 23, 24, 34; 
love of farming, 10, 11, 12, 148 ; 
love of peace, 24, 30, 75, 118, 127, 
144, 163, 189, 255, 279, 291 ; mili- 
tary weakness, 51, 52-63, 289 ; mu- 
sical taste, 4 ; morals, 6, 203, 204 ; 
optimism, 189, 212, 242, 243, 247, 
289 ; ostentatious simplicity, 157, 
187, 188, 237, 295 ; oratorical weak- 
ness, 10, 23, 24, 33 ; partisanship, 
181, 190, 191, 200, 237, 238; pa. 
triotism, 80, 81 ; personal appear- 
ance, 4 ; popular insight and con- 
trol, 41, 42, 132, 143, 176, 189, 
191, 226, 236 ; radicalism, 15, 17, 20, 
24, 37, 79, 100 ; religious views, 
40, 48, 302-304; sensitiveness, 33, 
62, 63; sentimentalism, 8, 13, 14, 
225 ; shrewdness, 91, 100, 113, 156, 
175, 216; sincerity, 100, 104, 120, 
184, 242 ; sporting tastes, 4 ; stu- 
diousness, 6, 7 ; theoretical hab- 
its, 34, 46, 48, 66, 69, 77, 116, 172, 
191. 

Political Opiniont. General smv 



322 



INDEX 



mary, 284; "Anas," 98, 291; ap- 
pomtments to office, 198-200 ; as- 
sumption of state debt, 90-92 ; 
bank, 106-108 ; Burr's treason, 249- 
254 ; Barbary States, 72 ; causes of 
Revolution, 27 ; centralization, 92, 
262 ; commerce, 71, 149, 270, 287 ; 
confederation, 67, 83 ; Constitution, 
84-86, 96, 107, 124, 152, 180, 202, 
205, 223-228, 251-253, 292; Cuban 
annexation, 287 ; democracy, 37, 38, 
39, 42, 43, 79, 81-83, 97, 100, 101, 
115-117, 132, 170, 205, 228, 229, 273, 
284 ; .Democratic-Republican party, 
143, 144, 176; disunion, 173, 225; 
economics, 11, 12 ; education, 302 ; 
embargo, 161, 266, 280 ; England, 
61, 73-76, 136, 138, 148, 211, 244, 
245, 255-278, 287-290; Federalist 
party, 135, 136, 140, 150, 163, 174, 
178, 189-191, 213, 227, 240, 241, 265, 
280 ; financial policy of Hamilton, 
91, 94, 105, 109, 110-114, 123 ; Flor- 
ida, annexation of, 246, 259, 287 ; 
France, 123, 133, 138, 169, 210-216, 
244, 255, 272; French Revolution, 
77, 78, 130, 131, 136, 137, 148 ; Genet 
afiair, 135-142 ; government, 83, 
223 ; independence of colonies, 26, 
27, 35 ; internal improvements, 261, 
293, 294 ; Jay treaty, 151, 152 ; judi- 
ciary, 230 If. ; Kentucky Resolu- 
tions, 172, 224 ; Leander affair, 
257, 258 ; Leopard and Chesapeake 
a£Fair, 264, 265 ; Louisiana pur- 
chase, 220-229 ; Mississippi naviga- 
tion, 206-217 ; Missouri Compro- 
mise, 291-293 ; monarchical policy 
of Federalists, 101-103, 104, 105, 109, 
111, 113, 114, 103, 190 ; national debt, 
93, 94, 110, 111, 288; navy, 259, 
265 ; New England, 192, 193, 276 ; 
non-importation, 149, 161, 257, 262, 
263 ; Puritan clergy, 193, 230 ; rela- 
tion of colonies to Parliament, 19- 
20 ; religious freedom, 41 ; remov- 
als from office, 194-197, 202 ; right 
of insurrection, 82, 151, 276 ; sec- 
tionalism, 292 ; Sedition Act, 202 ; 
Shays's rebellion, 81 ; slavery, 32, 
44-49, 68, 291, 292, 293 ; territorial 
government, 68 ; Whiskey Rebel- 
lion, 151 ; X Y Z affair, 169. 



Kentucky RBSOLnnoHs, drawn by 
Jefferson, 172 ; their character, 172, 
173. 

King, Rufus, candidate for Vice- 
President in 1804, 241. 

Knox, Henry, secretary of war, 88 ; 
follows Hamilton in cabinet, 134. 

Lataybttb, MASQina db, intimacy 

with Jefferson, 77 ; seeks bis advice 
during French Revolution, 77, 78 ; 
tries to use him to harmonize fac- 
tions, 78 ; letter of Jefferson to, 
on monarchists in Congress, 115. 

Laurens, Henry, on peace commis- 
sion, 16. 

Laussat, French representative at 
New Orleans, 221. 

Leander, British vessel, kills an Amer- 
ican, 257. 

Lear, Tobias, said to have assisted 
Jefferson to destroy proofs of quar- 
rel with Washington, 165. 

Lee, Richard Henry, offers resolu- 
tions of independence, 28 ; reasons 
for his exclusion from committee to 
draft Declaration, 30, 31 ; member 
of anti-Washington faction, 31. 

Legislature of Virginia, engages in 
controversy with Botetourt, 16 ; 
forms non-importation league, 16; 
and committee of correspondence, 
17 ; dissolved by Dunmore, 17 ; de- 
plores Boston Port Bill and is 
again dissolved, 17, 18 ; approves of 
Jefferson's "Summary View," 18, 
19 ; modifies and adopts Jefferson's 
reply to Lord North, 21, 22; in- 
structs delegates to Congress to 
move for independence, 28; abol- 
ishes entails, 38 ; and primogeni- 
ture, 39 ; disestablishes the church, > 
40, 41 ; adopts other reforms, 42, 
43; rejects Jefferson's plan of 
emancipation, 44; prohibits impor- 
tation of slaves, 49 ; flies from Eng- 
lish troops, 59 ; scattered by Tarle- 
ton, 60 ; movement in, to investi- 
gate Jefferson's conduct, 62 ; passes 
resolutions of thanks, 63 ; anger of 
Jefferson with, 64. 

Leopard, attacks Chesapeake, 2G1> 
267 



INDEX 



323 



Leslie, Oeneral, invades Virginia, 55, 
56. 

Lincoln, Levi, interrupta the "mid- 
night appointments," 186 ; letter of 
Jefterson to, on the embargo, 276. 

Livingston, Robert R., on committee 
to prepare Declaration of Independ- 
ence, 29 ; letter of Jefiferaon to, on 
French acquisition of Louisiana, 
211 ; instructed by Jefferson to se- 
cure a depot on Mississippi, 215 ; 
makes unwise admissions, 215 ; not 
trusted by Federalists, 215; joins 
with Monroe in agreeing to buy 
Liouisiana, 218. 

Louisiana, purchase of, 206-229 ; at- 
tempt of Jefferson to purchase New 
Orleans, 214-217; intended by Na- 
poleon for a French colony, 217 ; 
offered by him, in need of money, 
218 ; p\irchased by United States, 
218 ; constitutional and other ob- 
jections, 219-222 ; justification for 
purchase, 222-229 ; troubles over 
boundary of, 246. 

Hadison, Jamss, works with Jefferson 
in reforming Virginia law, 37 ; de- 
plores Jefferson's irritation under 
criticism, 64 ; induces Jefferson to 
favor the federal Constitution, 84 ; 
urges him to accept office of secre- 
tary of state, 87 ; recommends Fre- 
neau to Jefferson for a clerkship, 
119 ; letter of Jefferson to, on neu- 
trality, 134 ; upholds Jefferson's re- 
port on commerce in Congress, 149 ; 
letter of Jefferson to, on Whiskey 
Insurrection, 150 ; implored by Jef- 
ferson to encounter Hamilton con- 
cerning Jay treaty, 151 ; inferior 
as leader to Jefferson, 155 ; refuses 
Adams's offer of French mission, 
159 ; draws Virp^inia Resolutions, 
172 ; presents Merry to Jefferson, 
188 ; the natural successor of Jef- 
ferson, 282 ; favored by Jefferson 
over Monroe, 283 ; relations with 
Jefferson in presidency, 286 ; urged 
by Jefferson not to make conces- 
sions to England, 287 ; his foreign 
policy a continuation of Jefferson's, 
288; offers Jefferson position of 



secretary of state, 289 ; appealed to 
by Jefferson to defend his posthu> 
mous reputation, 305. 

Marshall, John, studies law with 
Wythe, 7 ; follows Hamilton in up- 
holding constitutionality of bank, 
107 ; appointed on French mission, 
161 ; in X Y Z affair, 167 ; proposed 
as president pro tempore in 1800 to 
defeat Jefferson, 180 ; signs mid- 
night appointments, 186 ; issues 
subpoena to President in Burr case, 
251 ; his opinion criticised by Jef- 
ferson, 252, 253; his "Life of 
Washington " condemned by Jeffer- 
son, 305. 

Martin, Luther, accuses Jefferson of 
persecuting Burr, 251. 

Mason, Colonel, letter of Jefferson tO| 
on monarchists, 114. 

Mason, George, aids Jefferson in dem< 
ocratic reform in Virginia, 37. 

Mazzei, Joseph, Jefferson's letter to, 
162-164. 

Mercer, James, in Virginia Conven- 
tion, opposes Jefferson's answer to 
Lord North, 22. 

Merry, Anthony, British minister, in- 
dignant at Jefferson's lack of cere- 
mony, 187, 188 ; considers it a de- 
liberate insult to England, 188. 

Mifflin, Thomas, remark of Jefferson 
concerning, 157. 

Mississippi navigation, its importance 
early seen by Jefferson, 206 ; its ne- 
cessity urged upon Spain, 207, 208 
acquired by Pinckney's treaty, 208 
credit for, due to Jefferson, 208 
cut off by Spain, 212 ; its indispen- 
sability urged by Jefferson upon 
France, 216. 

Missouri Compromise, considered a 
great danger by Jefferson, 291 ; in- 
consistent with state rights, 293. 

Monroe doctrine, foreshadowed by 
Jefferson, 208. 

Monroe, James, rebukes Jefferson for 
sulking, 64 ; advised by Jefferson to 
visit France, 81 ; writes to Jeffer- 
son in behalf of Constitution, 84 
letters of Jefferson to, 108, 135, 141 
minor leader of party, 155; suc- 
ceeded as mioixtMr to France hj 



S24 



INDEX 



Pinckney, 160 ; his departure from 
France, IGO ; governor of Virginia, 
215 ; appointed envoy extraordinary 
to France, 215, 216; instructed 
orally by Jefferson, 216, 217 ; agrees 
to buy all of Louisiana, 218 ; ex- 
ceeds instructions, but understands 
Jefferson's wishes, 219 ; letter of 
Jefferson to, on Leander affair, 257 ; 
his treaty of 1806 with England re- 
jected by Jefferson, 262, 263; de- 
sires to contest presidency with 
Madison, 282 ; angered at Jeffer- 
son's position, 282, 283. 

Uontmorin, Comte, correspondence 
of Jefferson with, concerning com- 
merce, 71 ; interview with Jeffer- 
son, 78. 

Morris, Gouverneur, his proposed 
monetary unit criticised by Jeffer- 
son, 68 ; letters of Jefferson to, 
139, 142, 209. 

Moustier, Count de, suspected by 
Jefferson of planning to regain Lou- 
isiana for France, 209. 

Murray, William Vans, acts as inter- 
mediary between Talleyrand and 
United States, 171. 

"National Gazette," its establish- 
ment, 119. See Freneau, Philip. 

Nelson, General, sent by Jefferson to 
defend Virginia from invasion, 56. 

New England, the stronghold of Fed- 
eralist party, 192 ; dislike of Jeffer- 
son for, 192, 193, 230 ; hopes of its 
regeneration, 193; denounces em- 
bargo, 276 ; threatens resistance, 
279. 

New Orleans, its acquisition urged by 
Jefferson, 207, 208 ; its holder the 
" natural enemy " of United States, 
211 ; privilege of deposit at, cut off, 
212 ; pians of Jefferson to acquire, 
214,215,216. 

Nicholas, George, moves an investiga- 
tion into Jefferson's conduct as 
governor, 62 ; Jefferson's relations 
with, 62 n. 

Nicholas, Wilson Gary, moves repeal 
of embargo, 280 ; hastens Jeffer- 
son's financial ruin, 299 ; relations 
of Jefferson with, 299. 



Nicholas, Robert C, a conBervativa 
opponent of Jefferson in Virginia 
convention, 21 ; secures amend- 
ment of his reply to Lord North, 
22. 

Nicholson, Joseph, letter of Jeffer. 
son to, suggesting impeachment of 
Chase, 233, 234. 

Non-importation, adopted in Virginia, 
16 ; defeated in Senate in 1794, 149 ; 
adopted against England in 1806, 
257 ; suspended, in hopes of influ- 
encing England, 262, 263. 

North, Lord, his "Olive Branch" 
proposition answered by Virginia, 
21. 

NulUfication. See Kentucky Resolu- 
tions. 

Page, John, early letters of Jefferson 
to, 7 ; defeated for governor by 
Jefferson, 51. 

Paine, Thomas, writes " Common 
Sense," 28 ; letter of Jefferson to, 
114; his "Rights of Man" re- 
printed by Jefferson, 118. 

Peabody, Andrew P., on Judge Pick- 
ering's character and failings, 231. 

Pendleton, Edmund, argues in favor 
of primogeniture in Virginia, 39. 

Phillips, General, protests against 
Jefferson's treatment of Hamilton, 
54. 

Pickering, Judge John, impeached at 
Jefferson's suggestion, 230, 231 ; 
discussion of justice of action, 231 
and note. 

Pickering, Timothy, criticises Decla- 
ration of Independence for lack of 
originality, 35 ; his low opinion of 
Washington's mental ability, 165. 

Pinckney, C. C, suggested for French 
mission by Adams, 159 ; rejected by 
Prance, 160 ; reappointed on com- 
mission with Gerry and Marshall, 
161 ; in X Y Z episode, 167 ; Feder- 
alist candidate for Vice-President 
in 1800, 177 ; for President m 1804, 
241. 

Pinckney, Thomas, candidate for Vice- 
President, 154 ; defeated through 
Federalist bad faith, 155. 

Pinkney, William, joins Monroe ia 



INDEX 



325 



making uBsncceuful treaty of 1806 
with England, 262 ; reports effect 
of embargo in England, 270 ; reports 
conversation with Canning, 277. 

Potter, Sukey, flirtation of Jefferson 
with, 8. 

Primogeniture, abolished in Virg^a, 
39. 

Puritan clergy, hated by Jefferson, 
193, 229. 

QciNCT, JosiAH, his attack on the em- 
bargo, 274. 

Randall, Hbitry S., quoted concern- 
ing Jefferson, 10, 51, 289, 296, 298, 
301, 303. 

Randolph, Edmund, attorney-general, 
88 ; writes neutrality proclamation, 
134; annoys Jefferson by failing 
steadily to support him, 134, 136 ; 
his real shrewdness, 134 ; action at 
time of Jay treaty, 152. 

Randolph, Jane, mother of Thomas 
Jefferson, 3 ; her family connec- 
tions, 3, 4. 

Randolph, John, letters of Jefferson 
to, on causes of Revolution, 26, 27. 

Randolph, John, of Roanoke, leader 
of Democrats in House of Repre- 
sentatives, 214 ; secures grant of 
authority to Jefferson to purchase 
territory, 214 ; leads House to vote 
money for purchase of Louisiana, 
222 ; unable to reconcile purchase 
with Constitution, 223 ; leads House 
to impeach Chase, 233 ; defeated, 
234 ; deserts Jefferson in House, 246 ; 
comments of Jefferson upon him, 
247 ; his reasons, 248 ; joins Federal- 
ists in attacking Jefferson, 256 ; his 
remarks on merchants' demands, 
257. 

Randolph, Peyton, presents Jeffer- 
son's instructions to Virginia con- 
vention, 19 ; succeeded by Jeffer- 
son as delegate to Congress, 21. 

Randolph, William, relations with 
Peter Jefferson, 3. 

" Recorder," slanders Jefferson under 
influence of Callender, 202, 203. 

Bepublican party. See Democratic 
party. 



Revolution, war of, foreseen by JeSer> 
son, 26, 27 ; its causes, 27. 

Rose, George H., fruitless mission of, 
to United States, 267. 

Rutledge, Edward, youngest member 
of Continental Congress, 23 ; moves 
adjournment of debate on resolu- 
tion of independence, 31. 

Sedition Act, passed, 172 ; held un- 
constitutional and void by Jeffer- 
son, 202. 

Shays's rebellion, approved by Jeffer- 
son, 81, 82. 

Sherman, Roger, on committee to 
draft Declaration of Independence, 
29. 

Skelton, Mrs. Bathurst, marries Jeffer- 
son, 8 ; death, 65 ; makes Jefferson 
promise never to marry again, 65. 

Slavery, attempt to abolish in Vir- 
ginia, 44, 45 ; emancipation and 
colonization, 45, 46 ; opinions of 
Jefferson concerning, 44-49, 293; 
stoppage of slave trade, 49; fore- 
seen as cause of future civil war by 
Jefferson, 292. 

Small, William, his influence as in- 
structor, upon Jefferson, 5, 7. 

Smith, J. B., letter of Jefferson to, on 
monarchists, causes trouble with 
Adamses, 118. 

Spain, urged by Jefferson to grant 
navigation of Mississippi, 206 ; ad- 
mits it by treaty of 1795, 208 ; cede* 
Louisiana to France, 210 ; its offi- 
cial at New Orleans closes Mis- 
sissippi, 212 ; makes trouble over 
boundaries of Florida, 246, 259 ; war 
with, threatened by Jefferson, 259, 
260. 

Stamp Act, Henry's speech against, 
15. 

State rights, declared by Jefferson, 
172, 173, 224 ; violated by him in 
acquisition of Louisiana, 224 ; yet 
still upheld, 225 ; inconsistent with 
Jefferson's scheme of internal im- 
provements, 261, 262 ; infringed by 
Missouri Compromise, 293 ; asserted 
by Jefferson in connection with in- 
ternal improvements, 294. 

Supreme Court, suspected byJeffn* 



326 



INDEX 



sy 



•on, 196, 229, 293; attacked In 
Chase impeachment, 231-234 ; tri- 
umphs over Jefferson, 234 ; defied 
by him in Burr case, 251-253. 

Talletband, demands bribes from 
United States commissioners, 167 ; 
considered by Jefferson to mis- 
represent France, 169 ; makes ad- 
vances for reconciliation, 171. 

Tarleton, Sir Banastre, nearly cap- 
tures Jefferson, 59, 60 ; does not 
ravage Jefferson's house, 60. 

Irumbull, Jonathan, refuses to com- 
ply with Jefferson's requisition for 
militia, 279. 

Tucker, Professor, on Declaration of 
Independence, 35 ; defends Colonel 
Hamilton, 54. 

UinvBBSiTT OF ViBOiNiA, its estab- 
lishment by Jefferson, 302. 

Vebqennbs, Comtb db, correspond- 
ence of Jefferson with, concerning 
commerce, 71. 

Virginia, aristocratic society in, 1, 2, 
5, 39 ; the bar in, 9 ; farming in, 10, 
12 ; elections in, 16 ; opposes par- 
liamentary supremacy, 16-22 ; ready 
for independence in 1776, 28 ; easy 
transition in, from monarchy to 
republic, 37 j democratic reform in, 
37-43 ; movement in, among dis- 
senters, against Established Church, 
41, 42 ; slavery in, 44, 45, 47 ; ad- 
ministration of Henry as governor 
of, 51, 52 ; administration of Jef- 
ferson, 51-63 ; its exertions and 
exhaustion under Henry, 52 ; in- 
creased exhaustion of, in 1780, 52 ; 
ravaged by British, 54, 55 ; invaded 
In 1780, 56, 57 ; inefficient efforts of 
Jefferson as governor to defend, 56, 
57 ; dissatisfaction in, with Jeffer- 
son, 58, 62 ; raided by Tarleton, 59- 
61; delivered by fall of Comwallis,62. 

WARViLtB, Brissot de, letter of Jeffer- 
son to, on slavery, 47, 48. 

Washington, George, reduces Boston, 
28 ; faction opposed to, in Congress, 
31 ; advises mild treatment of Colo- 



nel Hamilton, 54 ; writes compIL 
mentary letter to Jefferson, 63; 
his resignation, 67 ; makes Jeffer- 
son secretary of state, 87 ; his other 
officers, 88 ; does not recognize any 
parties, 96 ; rejects Jefferson's accu- 
sations of monarchy against Ham- 
ilton, 104 ; signs bill establishing 
bank, 107 ; annoyed at dissensions 
in cabinet, 110, 111 ; appealed to by 
Jefferson to accept a second term 
in order to defeat monarchists, 111, 
112 ; bitterly attacked by Freneau, 
120 ; endeavors to persuade Hamil- 
ton and Jefferson to cease newspa- 
per controversy, 122 ; not moved 
by Jefferson's attacks on Hamilton, 
126 ; advised by Jefferson to ad- 
vance debt payments to France, 
140 ; reluctant to accept Jefferson's 
resignation, 145, 146 ; his denuncia- 
tion of democratic societies de- 
plored by Jefferson, 150 ; distrusted 
by Jefferson as a possible danger to 
country, 150 ; his retirement wel- 
comed by Jefferson, 157 ; said by 
Federalists to have been attacked by 
Jefferson in Mazzei letter, 164 ; re- 
puted quarrel of, with Jefferson, 164, 
165 ; Jefferson's opinion of, 165 ; low 
opinion of Pickering concerning, 
166 ; Democratic abuse of, never 
forgiven by people, 166, 201 ; his 
control of the people compared with 
Jefferson's, 235, 283. 

Wayles, John, Jefferson's father-in- 
law, leaves him property, 8. 

Whiskey Rebellion, Jefferson's opin- 
ion of, 150, 151. 

WUliam and Mary College, Jefferson 
a student in, 5 ; its instruction con- 
sidered by Jefferson equal to Eu- 
ropean, 81. 

Williamsburg in 1760, 5. 

Wilkinson, General James, ordered 
by Jefferson to take possession of 
Louisiana, 221. 

Wythe, George, studies of Jefferson 
in office of, 6, 7 ; works for demo- 
cratic reform in Virginia, 37 ; eman. 
cipates his slaves, 44. 

X Y Z correspondence, 168. 



AMERICAN MEN OF 
LETTERS 

Biographies of our most eminent American Authors, written bj 
men who are themselves prominent in the field of letters. 

The writers of these biographiet are themselves A mericans, generally familia* 

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O biographical history of A merican Literature . 

WILLIAM CULLEN BRYANT. By John Bigelow. 
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RALPH WALDO EMERSON. By Oliver Wendell Holme* 
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JOHN MARSHALL. By Allan B. Magruder. 

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JAMES MADISON. By Sydney Howard Gay. 

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JAMES MONROE. By D. C. Oilman. 

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